FROM  THE 

HIMALAYAS 

TO  THE 

E  cm  AT  OR 


^ram  tl|f  ICibrary  of 

tl}t  IGibrarg  of 
Pnnrrtntt  Slipnlogtral  i>mtttar^ 

DS  413    .F7  1899 
Foss,  Cyrus  David,  1834- 
1910. 

From  the  Himalayas  to  the 
 eauator  


Digitized  by 

the  Internet  Archive 

in  2015 

https://archive.org/details/fromhimalayastoeOOfoss 


FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS 
TO  THE  EOUATOR 

Letters,  Sketches  and  Addresses,  Giving 
Some  Account  of 

A  TOUR  IN  INDIA  AND  MALAYSIA 

BY 

CYRUS  D.  FOSS,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

One  of  the  Bishops  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 


NEW  YORK:    EATON   &  MAINS 
CINCINNATI:  CURTS  &  JENNINGS 
1899 


Copyright  by 
EATON  &  MAINS, 
J899. 


TO 

MY  BELOVED  WIFE, 

WHOSE  PRESENCE  WOULD  HAVE  MULTIPLIED  MY  ENJOYMENT  OF  THE 
INSPIRING  SCENES  I  HAVE  TRIED  TO  DEPICT,  AND  WHOSE 
HOME  MESSAGES  BY  EVERY  MAIL  BROUGHT  ME 
UNFAILING  GOOD  CHEER  IN  ALL  MY 
WIDE  WANDERINGS. 


PREFACE 


IN  the  year  1888  the  Rev.  James  M.  Thoburn, 
D.D.,  who  had  been  for  thirty  years  a  mission- 
ary of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  India, 
was  elected  "  Missionary  Bishop  for  India  and 
Malaysia."  During  the  two  quadrenniums  imme- 
diately succeeding  his  election  the  episcopal  super- 
vision of  our  entire  work  in  Southern  Asia  was 
left  in  his  hands.  In  1896  the  General  Confer- 
ence so  changed  the  law  of  the  Church  as  to  pro- 
vide for  a  novel  and  specific  exercise  of  the  "  co- 
ordinate authority,"  which  had  all  along  existed, 
"  so  that  once  in  every  quadrennium,  and  not 
oftener  unless  serious  emergency  arise,  every  mis- 
sion over  which  a  missionary  bishop  has  jurisdic- 
tion shall  be  administered  conjointly  by  the  gen- 
eral superintendents  and  the  missionary  bishop." 

Under  this  instruction  the  Board  of  Bishops  as- 
signed to  me  the  very  welcome  duty  of  an  official 
visitation  to  India  and  Malaysia,  to  be  made  in  the 
autumn  and  winter  of  1897  and  1898.  To  my  great 
satisfaction  I  found  it  practicable  to  arrange  for 
Mrs.  Foss  to  accompany  me,  and  our  passage  was 
engaged  for  July;  but  the  prevalence  of  the  plague 
and  of  the  famine  led  Bishop  Thoburn  and  eight- 
een presiding  elders,  with  whom  he  was  meeting 

as  a  Committee  on  Famine  Relief,  to  advise  the 

5 


6 


PREFACE. 


postponement  of  the  visitation  for  a  year.  When, 
however,  a  letter  had  been  received  leading,  some 
months  later,  to  the  fixing  of  the  original  time,  it 
proved  impracticable  for  Mrs.  Foss  to  go. 

My  tried  and  valued  friend,  the  Rev.  John  F. 
Goucher,  D.D.,  President  of  the  Woman's  College 
of  Baltimore,  had  long  desired  to  inspect  the  work 
in  India  which  he  had  done  so  much  to  promote, 
and  it  was  my  great  good  fortune  to  find  him  will- 
ing to  undertake  the  long  tour.  He  therefore  ac- 
companied me  constantly,  until  our  half  year's 
journey  took  us  entirely  round  the  world.  I  could 
not  have  had  at  my  side  a  more  considerate  and 
helpful  traveling  companion,  nor  a  more  intelligent 
and  devoted  student  of  missions. 

In  these  letters  to  my  family,  sketches  prepared 
for  newspapers,  essays  on  special  subjects,  and 
public  addresses,  sundry  repetitions  were  not  only 
unavoidable,  but  essential.  For  this  more  perma- 
nent record  they  have  been  eliminated  as  far  as 
practicable  ;  but  in  a  few  instances  statements  are 
repeated  for  needful  explanation. 

Cyrus  D.  Foss. 

Philadelphia,  January  17,  1899. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  PACI! 

I.  Outward  Bound   1 1 

II.  Four  Bright  Hours  on  Sunny  Seas   18 

III.  To  the  Himalayas   22 

IV.  Naini  Tal ;  the  Lake  of  the  Goddess   27 

V.  Back  to  the  Plains   32 

VI.  A  Unique  Camp  Meeting   35 

VII.  The  Moguls  ;  their  Tyrannical  Rule  and  Splendid 

Architecture   41 

VIII.  Fifteen  Hundred  Miles  Southward  ;  from  Hathras 

to  Bombay  and  Madras   51 

IX.  Woman's  Work  for  Woman   57 

X.  The  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society   65 

XI.  A  New  "  Koh-i-Noor  "   79 

XII.  Fifteen  Hundred  Miles  Northward ;  from  Madras 

*     to  Calcutta  and  Lucknow   85 

XIII.  Conference  Sketches   92 

XIV.  Two  Pen  Pictures   loi 

XV.  Central  India  Conference   107 

XVI.  Ep worth  League  Extraordinary   122 

XVII.  A  Genuine  Bonanza   129 

XVIII.  Some  India  Fruits   135 

XIX.  How  our  Missionaries  Live   147 

7 


8  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XX.  Self-support   153 

XXI.  In  the  Torrid  Zone   168 

XXII.  Essay  on  Crows,  Lizards,  etc   177 

XXIII.  Burma  as  a  Mission  Field   182 

XXIV.  Curiosities  of  Oriental  Travel   189 

XXV.  Polyglot  Malaysia   198 

XXVI.  Homeward  Bound   205 

XXVII.  Welcome  Home   215 

XXVIII.  Our  Most  Successful  Mission   233 

XXIX.  A  Bugle  Call   251 

XXX.  Statistics   257 

Index    261 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


FACING  PAGE 

Cyrus  D.  Foss  frontispiece 

In  the  Heart  of  the  Himalayas   22 

Naini  Tal   27 

Jumna  Musjid,  Delhi — The  Largest  Mosque  in  the  World.  43 

The  Taj  Mahal   48 

A  Zenana   58 

The  Laying  of  the  Corner  Stone  of  the  Orphanage  at 

Madras     78 

Faculty  and  Graduating  Class,  Theological  Seminary, 

Bareilly   92 

Bishops  Foss,  Joyce,  and  Thoburn  and  Dr.  Goucher 

Before  the  Camera   97 

J.  M.  Thobum   109 

Epworth  League  Banners   124 

John  F.  Goucher   129 

The  Ahway  Dagohn,  Rangoon,  Burma — The  Incompara- 
ble Pagoda   179 

Elephant  Lifting  a  Log   195 

Elephant  Piling  Timber   197 

Bathing  Ghat,  Benares   237 

Burning  Ghat,  Benares   238 

Rescued  Famine  Waifs   241 


FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS 

TO  THE  EQUATOR- 


CHAPTER  I. 

Outward  Bound. 


N  Saturday,  October  9,  1897,  the  good  ship 


Kaiser  Williclvi  //steamed  out  of  New  York 
harbor,  bound  for  Naples,  bearing  the  Rev.  John 
F.  Goucher,  D.D.,  and  myself  on  a  tour  in  which 
we  made  the  circuit  of  the  globe,  reaching  our 
homes  again  after  six  months  and  five  days. 

Our  voyage  was  very  pleasant,  the  weather  per- 
fect, no  storm  nor  high  wind,  and  scarcely  a  sprin- 
kle of  rain.  For  four  days  the  sea  was  smooth, 
not  like  the  proverbial  "  mill  pond  "  (I  never  saw 
the  ocean  quite  in  that  mood),  but  smooth  enough. 
The  temperature  was  very  mild,  and  either  the  sun 
or  the  moon  beamed  brightly  every  hour.  The 
thermometer  in  our  room  registered  from  70  to 
78  degrees. 

We  had  a  great  treat  in  passing  the  Azores 
Islands  on  the  south  side,  near  enough  to  see  cat- 
tle and  men,  and,  of  course,  houses,  churches, 
windmills,  and  the  beautiful  terraced  hillsides. 
We  passed  the  islands  of  Fayal  and  Pico  in  the 
morning,  and  St.  Miguel  toward  evening.  The 


11 


12       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


sea  was  placid,  the  sky  clear,  and  the  semitropical 
islands  were  covered  far  up  the  mountain  sides 
with  a  luxuriant  vegetation  ;  I  almost  felt  that  we 
had  landed.  At  night  we  pulled  away  in  the 
darkness  from  the  last  lighthouse  into  the  great 
sea. 

We  had  on  board  five  hundred  steerage  pas- 
sengers— Italians — and  it  was  very  amusing  to  see 
them  at  1 1  A.  M.,  gathered  in  squads  of  ten  each 
round  a  twelve-quart  pan  of  macaroni,  twenty  or 
thirty  small  boiled  potatoes,  two  enormous  loaves 
of  bread,  and  great  chunks  of  cold  boiled  mutton, 
one  of  the  oldest  men  in  each  squad  dispensing  the 
food  with  studious  equity — probably  the  best  bill 
of  fare  any  of  them  had  had  for  many  months. 

We  were  called  to  our  meals,  having  been  noti- 
fied of  them  thirty  minutes  in  advance  by  the  notes 
of  a  very  fine  cornet;  and  an  excellent  band  played 
at  dinner  as  many  pieces  as  there  were  courses, 
and  gave  two  concerts  daily  on  deck.  On  both 
Sunday  mornings  we  were  wakened  by  delicious 
German  hymn  tunes  played  by  the  band,  the  first 
of  all  being  "  Ein  feste  Burg  ist  unser  Gott." 

Between  Gibraltar  and  Naples  we  had  one  of  the 
most  glorious  sunsets  I  have  ever  seen.  We  had 
just  passed  near  to  the  island  of  Sardinia,  and 
were  twenty  miles  away  at  sunset,  gliding  under  a 
faultlessly  blue  sky  over  a  deeper  blue  sea.  The 
broad  disk  of  the  sun  covered  fully  half  the  range 
of  the  distant  mountains,  and  was  twice  as  broad 
as  the  height  of  the  highest  peak. 


OUTWARD  BOUND. 


13 


At  Gibraltar  we  had  four  hours  for  gUmpses  of 
the  world's  greatest  military  stronghold,  and  at 
Rome  a  full  day  for  careful  inspection  of  a  fortress 
which  has  to  do  with  the  fortunes  of  an  empire  far 
grander  and  more  enduring  than  Victoria's.  The 
records  of  the  last  day  may  show  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Mission  House  in  the  vaunted  "  Eternal 
City  "  to  have  been  the  source  of  influences  vaster, 
and  immeasurably  more  potent  as  well  as  benefi- 
cent, than  those  of  Gibraltar. 

We  were  delighted  to  find  a  building  so  large, 
fine,  solid,  commodious,  admirably  planned,  excel- 
lently located,  adapted  to  so  many  uses,  absolutely 
fireproof,  and  erected  at  so  moderate  a  cost.  It 
covers  a  lot  93x155  feet,  and  is  five  stories  high 
above  the  basement.  It  contains  a  beautiful  chapel 
for  Italian  services,  holding  about  five  hundred 
people,  with  Sunday  school  and  Epworth  League 
rooms  adjacent ;  a  chapel  for  services  in  English,  half 
as  large  ;  recitation  rooms,  dormitories,  and  living 
rooms  for  a  boys'  college  of  sixty  students,  and  like 
accommodations  for  a  theological  school  of  twenty 
students  ;  suites  of  apartments  for  six  professors, 
pastors,  and  teachers  and  their  families,  and  three 
other  small  suites  of  rooms  for  rent ;  a  large  printing 
room  and  a  gymnasium.  The  cost  of  this  great  col- 
lection of  properties,  exclusive  of  interest  on  money 
borrowed  during  the  course  of  the  work,  was  $199,- 
245.08.  Dr.  Goucher  agrees  with  me  in  the  opin- 
ion that  in  New  York  such  a  property  could  not  be 
secured  for  less  than  twice  this  amount  of  money. 


14       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


We  congratulate  the  Rev.  William  Burt,  D.D., 
who  inaugurated  and  carried  through  this  great 
enterprise,  and  the  Church  which  now  has  such 
admirable  provision  for  our  needs  in  Italy,  and 
has  made  so  eloquent  a  proclamation  that  we  are 
in  Rome  to  stay. 

Steamship  Egypt,  near  Port  Said,  \ 
Wednesday,  October  27.  f 

Early  last  Saturday  morning  we  left  Rome  for  a 
fourteen  hours'  journey  to  Brindisi,  expecting  to 
sail  thence  on  Sunday  for  Bombay  by  the  Peninsular 
and  Oriental  line.  It  seemed  strange  that  such  a 
great  line  of  British  steamers  should  arrange  for 
their  start  to  India,  connecting  with  fast  express 
trains  from  London  and  Paris,  on  Sunday,  and  on 
no  other  day.  We  were  delayed  by  the  train,  and 
early  Monday  morning  the  eight-thousand-ton  ship, 
on  her  maiden  voyage  from  London  to  Bombay, 
pushed  out  again  on  the  greatest  of  historic  seas. 
We  thought,  of  course,  of  the  Roman  triremes,  and 
of  that  world-conquering  empire  which  "  made  the 
Mediterranean  a  Roman  lake."  We  passed  Greece 
in  the  night,  and,  skirting  the  coast  of  Crete  next 
day,  were  in  two  days  and  a  half  brought  to  this 
our  first  Egyptian  port. 

Suez  Canal,  near  Suez,  Egypt,  ) 
Thursday  noon,  October  28.  j 

We  reached  Port  Said  yesterday,  at  5  P.  M.,  and 
went  ashore  and  mixed  with  the  motley,  clamorous 


OUTWARD  BOUND. 


15 


crowd  in  the  oriental  town.  Our  great  steamer  took 
in  twelve  hundred  tons  of  coal,  the  portholes  and 
saloons  being  tightly  closed  to  keep  out  the  dense 
clouds  of  coal  dust.  Sleeping,  or  even  breathing, 
was  almost  an  impossibility  in  our  cabin,  so  we  re- 
mained on  deck  until  almost  i  A.  M.,  when  the 
steamer  started  and  the  portholes  were  opened. 
This  vessel  has  to  pay  a  toll  of  about  $15,000  every 
time  it  passes  through  the  canal,  the  toll  being 
computed  at  eight  shillings  a  ton  for  the  tonnage  of 
the  vessel,  and  about  $1.80  for  each  passenger.  The 
captain,  who  is  a  bright,  well-informed  man,  seemed 
to  take  quite  a  fancy  to  Dr.  Goucher  and  myself, 
and  several  times  came  and  conversed  with  us,  al- 
though he  had  five  hundred  and  ten  passengers  to 
look  after.  He  told  us  many  interesting  things 
about  the  canal;  among  the  rest  that  in  digging  it 
the  bricked  bottom  of  an  old  ship  canal  built  in  the 
time  of  Moses  was  found,  and  that  Cleopatra 
doubtless  sailed  through  there.  He  also  told  us 
that  two  famous  English  engineers,  one  a  son  of 
the  great  Stephenson,  after  careful  surveys,  re- 
ported to  the  British  government  that  there  was  a 
difference  of  two  feet  between  the  levels  of  the 
Mediterranean  and  the  Red  Seas,  so  that  a  canal 
could  not  possibly  be  constructed  without  locks ; 
which  false  report  cost  the  government  many  mil- 
lions of  pounds.  He  has  been  a  captain  of  vessels 
of  this  company  for  twenty-four  years,  passing  to 
and  fro  from  the  freezing  waters  of  Great  Britain 

to  the  changeable  Mediterranean  and  the  hot  Red 

2 


16       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

Sea  and  Indian  Ocean  all  these  years.  What  a  life 
to  lead ! 

The  Red  Sea  is  proverbially  hot.  We  found  it 
very  pleasant  for  two  days  and  torrid  the  other 
two.  The  officers  were  all  in  white  suits,  and 
everybody  else  in  the  thinnest  clothes  they  had. 
Early  in  the  morning  many  gentlemen  would  take 
their  baths  and  then  come  up  on  deck  barefoot, 
with  nothing  on  but  pyjamas,  and  sit  and  smoke 
their  pipes  until  near  breakfast  at  nine  o'clock. 
There  was  generally  a  fine  breeze  on  deck,  and 
great  punkahs  over  all  the  tables  were  briskly 
pulled  during  meals. 

Indian  Ocean,  Tuesday,  November  2. 

The  last  three  days  have  been  very  hot ;  barely 
comfortable  in  the  strong  breeze  on  deck  ;  but 
every  cabin  is  a  "  sweat  box."  We  had  an  odd 
incident  at  Aden ;  through  somebody's  blunder 
one  of  the  mail  bags  was  not  put  off  there,  al- 
though we  stopped  five  hours ;  and  the  great  eight 
thousand  ton  ship,  with  her  cargo  of  one  thousand 
lives,  had  to  put  back  several  miles  to  deliver  that 
portion  of  "  her  majesty's  mails,"  including  one 
home  letter  of  mine. 

We  reached  Bombay — after  a  journey  of  just 
four  weeks — at  2  A.  M.  on  Saturday,  November  6, 
and,  at  9  A.  M.,  after  sundry  very  leisurely  arrange- 
ments had  been  completed  were  taken  in  a  small 
steamer  to  the  wharf,  where  we  were  most  cordially 
welcomed  by  Bishop  and  Mrs.  Thoburn  and  a 
considerable  number  of  our  missionaries  and  native 


OUTWARD  BOUND. 


17 


pastors,  who  had  been  waiting  there  two  hours  to 
greet  us. 

As  the  guests  of  Bishop  Thoburn  we  at  once 
began  "  JiigJi  life  "  in  India,  his  apartments  being 
up  forty-five  steps  and  on  top  of  a  church.  In  the 
evening  we  enjoyed  an  informal  reception  of  all 
our  missionaries  in  and  about  Bombay,  with  some 
from  distant  places.  It  was  delightful  to  talk  and 
sing  and  pray  with  Americans,  Christians,  Protes- 
tants, Methodists. 


18       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


CHAPTER  II. 
Four  Bright  Hours  on  Sunny  Seas. 

IT  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  only  four  bright 
hours  gleamed  forth  amid  storms  during  my  two 
voyages  of  twelve  days  each,  from  New  York  to 
Naples  and  from  Brindisi  to  Bombay.  So  far  from 
this,  there  has  been  no  storm  worth  naming ;  the 
seas  have  been  smooth  enough  and  the  skies  bright 
enough  to  delight  any  reasonable  anticipation,  and 
the  breezes  soft  and  exhilarating  almost  every 
hour.  The  Indian  Ocean  especially,  which  mon- 
soons sometimes  lash  into  fury,  has  been  faultlessly 
serene  the  whole  five  days  of  my  crossing,  and  the 
immense  vault  which  bends  above  it  has  been 
flecked  with  many-hued,  far-away  clouds  by  day, 
and  glorified  at  night  by  the  crescent  moon  and  the 
oriental  splendors  of  her  retinue.  Moreover,  if  the 
weather  had  been  of  the  worst,  no  sensitive  mind 
could  fail  of  lively  interest  in  passing  between  the 
Pillars  of  Hercules,  in  sight  of  Vesuvius,  under  the 
dome  of  St.  Peter's,  across  the  tracks  of  Paul  and 
Moses,  of  the  Caesars  and  the  Ptolemies,  and  amid 
the  ruins  of  those  splendid  old  civilizations  which, 
in  perishing,  gave  place  to  the  new  and  imperish- 
able civilization  whose  Morning  Star  arose  at  Beth- 
lehem. 

The  "  Four  Bright  Hours  "  especially  signalized 


FOUR  BRIGHT  HOURS  ON  SUNNY  SEAS. 


19 


in  my  memory  were  made  possible  by  the  recent 
progress  of  that  ever-ascending  Star,  and  added 
luster  to  the  marvelous  brightness  of  the  Red  Sea 
and  the  Indian  Ocean.  They  were  passed  on  dif- 
ferent days  in  a  secluded  corner  of  the  great  dining 
room  of  the  steamship  Egypt,  in  "  conversations  " 
on  missions,  chiefly  those  in  India. 

We  had  among  our  five  hundred  and  ten  passen- 
gers, besides  four  oriental  princes  and  princesses 
and  a  maharajah,  five  British  lords  and  thirty-six 
missionaries,  also  five  special  friends  of  missions 
going  out  for  missionary  observation  and  labor. 
Among  the  latter  were  Lord  and  Lady  Kinnaird 
and  a  daughter  of  the  famous  philanthropist  and 
parliamentary  leader,  Samuel  Morley.  Lord  Kin- 
naird is  a  Scotchman  and  a  Presbyterian,  who  was 
deeply  impressed  by  the  early  evangelical  work  of 
Dwight  L.  Moody  and  of  Henry  Drummond.  He 
early  sought  the  acquaintance  of  Dr.  Goucher  and 
myself,  and  we  were  impressed  by  his  deep  and 
intelligent  interest  in  the  progress  of  spiritual  re- 
ligion and  his  zeal  in  missionary  work,  especially  in 
that  of  the  Zenana,  Bible,  and  Medical  Mission,  a 
union  society  of  which  he  is  the  treasurer,  and 
which  was  founded  by  Lady  Kinnaird's  mother. 

The  "  conversations "  were  arranged  for  at  the 
suggestion  of  Dr.  Goucher,  and  he  and  Lord  Kin- 
naird proposed  the  principal  topics.  They  were 
attended  from  day  to  day  by  more  than  thirty 
persons,  representing  the  missions  of  fourteen  dif- 
ferent societies,  as  follows  :  Baptist,  Zenana,  "  The 


20       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


Church,"  Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  Methodist 
Episcopal,  Missionary  Alliance,  Friends,  Keswick 
Mission,  Soldiers'  Christian  Association,  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association,  Young  Women's 
Christian  Association,  Cathedral  Mission  to  Cal- 
cutta, Cambridge  University  Mission  to  Delhi,  and 
Presbyterian. 

Lord  Kinnaird  presided  with  perfect  ease  and 
simplicity  of  manner,  and  skillfully  drew  out  differ- 
ing opinions.  The  lady  missionaries,  who  were 
largely  in  the  majority,  did  not  speak  so  readily  as 
their  American  sisters  would  have  done ;  but  on 
the  second  day  the  zenana  work  elicited  from  a  few 
of  them  very  interesting  facts  and  opinions  based 
on  large  experience.  High  Church  Cambridge 
University  "  priests,"  Baptists,  Methodists,  Presby- 
terians, Friends,  etc.,  seemed  to  forget  their  differ- 
ences and  to  speak  out  of  sincere  conviction  on  the 
immensely  difficult  and  slowly  evolving  problem  of 
how  to  bring  India  to  Christ.  One  young  Angli- 
can clergyman  told  of  his  painful  disenchantment. 
He  had  seen  in  England  pictures  of  a  missionary 
sitting  under  a  tree  with  a  Bible  in  his  hand  and  a 
native  holding  an  umbrella  over  his  head  as  he 
preached  the  Gospel  to  an  intent  and  tearful  mul- 
titude. He  had  thought  that  would  be  very  nice; 
but  he  had  been  in  India  three  years,  and  had 
found  it  very  different. 

The  chief  topics  discussed  were  :  "  The  Develop- 
ment of  a  Native  Ministry  and  of  Self-supporting 
Churches,"  "  The  Fundamental  Character  of  Edu- 


FOUR  BRIGHT  HOURS  ON  SUNNY  SEAS.  21 


cation,"  "  A  Few  Strong  Centers  vs.  Many  Smaller 
Ones,"  "  The  Importance,  Difficulties,  and  Encour- 
agements of  Work  among  Women  and  Girls," 
"  Zenana  Work,"  "  How  to  Meet  the  Criticism 
that  '  So-called  Christian  Servants  are  the  Worst 
of  All  Servants,'  "  "  Why  so  Many  Travelers  Decry 
Missions,"  and  "  The  Employment  of  Heathen 
Teachers  in  Christian  Schools." 

Dr.  Goucher  and  I  were  invited  to  open  im- 
portant discussions,  and  it  fell  to  my  lot  to  speak 
the  closing  words  and  to  lead  in  prayer.  I  gladly 
welcomed  the  opportunity  to  speak  of  the  rela- 
tions between  England  and  America,  and  of  the 
increasing  indications  of  answer  to  the  Saviour's 
prayer,  "  That  they  may  be  one,  even  as  we  are 
one  ;  .  .  .  that  the  world  may  know  that  thou 
hast  sent  me,  and  hast  loved  them  as  thou  hast 
loved  me."  In  the  season  of  prayer  which  fol- 
lowed four  or  five  took  part  audibly,  and  many 
hearts  were  touched  by  pentecostal  fire. 
Steamship  Egypt,  near  Bombay. 


22       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


CHAPTER  III. 
To  the  Himalayas. 

Naini  Tal,  November  15,  1897. 

SINCE  I  reached  India  I  have  seen  so  many 
strange  sights  and  heard  so  many  novel 
sounds,  and  had  so  many  and  such  various  thoughts 
and  emotions,  and  traveled  so  many  miles,  that  I 
have  not  been  able  to  command  the  time  for  such 
correspondence  as  could  possibly  give  any  just  im- 
pression of  these  things.  I  must  now  attempt, 
however  imperfectly,  to  give  a  little  notion  of  some 
of  the  multitudes  of  things  to  which  I  thus  refer. 

After  spending  four  days  in  Bombay,  where  we 
were  delightfully  entertained  at  the  house  of  Bishop 
Thoburn,  Dr.  Goucher  and  I  started  under  Bishop 
Thoburn's  care  for  one  of  our  most  northern  sta- 
tions, namely,  Naini  Tal.  On  the  way,  at  several 
railroad  stations,  we  were  met  by  the  native  pas- 
tors and  some  of  our  American  missionaries,  who 
brought  to  the  stations  large  numbers  of  native 
converts,  and  in  some  instances  whole  schools  of 
boys  and  girls,  who  were  arranged  in  lines  on  the 
platforms,  and  who  sang  to  us  their  native  hymns 
very  sweetly.  All  seemed  very  much  delighted  to 
see  the  American  strangers.  The  northward  jour- 
ney of  three  days  and  nights  was  broken  by  a  stop 
of  six  hours  at  Lucknow  and  a  night  at  Bareilly. 


TO  THE  HIMALAYAS. 


23 


Before  leaving  Bombay  we  provided  ourselves  with 
our  own  "  beds,"  so  called,  which  are  simply  very 
thick  comfortables,  to  be  folded  double  on  the 
railway  car  seats,  and  sometimes  on  cots  in  private 
houses.  We  carried  also  our  own  pillows,  sheets, 
and  coverlets. 

The  railway  cars  are  peculiar  from  our  American 
point  of  view.  They  are  divided  into  compart- 
ments, each  for  six  or  eight  persons.  The  seats  run 
lengthwise,  and  have  swinging  berths  above  them,  so 
that  four  persons  can  sleep  very  comfortably  in  a 
compartment.  The  first-class  fare  is  about  two  and 
a  half  cents  a  mile,  second  class  one  half  as  much, 
and  third  class  about  one  sixth  as  much. 

At  Khandwa  we  were  met  by  Presiding  Elder 
Johnson  and  Pastor  Vardon,  both  American  mis- 
sionaries, whose  work  is  in  the  midst  of  one  of  the 
worst  of  the  famine  regions.  We  saw  quite  a  num- 
ber of  "  famine  children,"  as  they  are  called.  Many 
who  came  with  them  to  our  schools  had  died,  but 
these  had  recovered  their  health.  The  shipload  of 
corn,  wheat,  and  beans  brought  from  San  Fran- 
cisco by  the  whaleback  steamer  City  of  Everett, 
which  steamer  we  had  seen  at  Port  Said  on  its 
homeward  voyage,  was  very  highly  appreciated 
throughout  India,  not  only  by  the  natives  who  re- 
ceived the  supplies,  but  by  the  missionaries  and  by 
many  government  officers.  I  heard  facts  which 
led  me  to  think  that  the  fourteen  tons  of  grain 
distributed  among  Christians  alone  in  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Vardon's  circuit  were  a  real  evangel  to  them, 


24       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


and  gave  them  such  a  sense  of  American  sympathy 
and  helpfuhiess  as  scarce  anything  else  could  have 
done ;  and  also  that  multitudes  of  heathen  who 
shared  in  the  supplies  from  that  ship  and  were 
struck  by  the  novel  form  of  the  grain  which  they 
were  told  came  from  America,  got  a  notion  that 
Jesus,  whom  the  Americans  worship,  is  the  Great 
Giver.  All  classes  and  castes  to  some  extent 
learned  that  lesson  from  that  good  ship. 

In  the  streets  one  finds  a  strange  conglomera- 
tion of  vehicles — queer-looking  carriages  drawn  by 
horses  ;  great  carts  drawn  by  bullocks,  which  often 
trot  rapidly  through  the  streets ;  long  lines  of 
camels,  the  halter  of  each  tied  to  the  tail  of  the 
one  ahead  ;  and,  in  some  places,  two  or  four  coolies 
carrying  chairs  containing  European  and  American 
men  and  women.  Many  of  the  streets  are  so  nar- 
row that  the  people  have  to  jostle  each  other  in 
passing. 

I  wish  it  were  possible  for  me  to  draw  vivid  pic- 
tures of  the  people,  the  homes  and  bazaars,  the 
mosques  and  temples  and  half-ruined  palaces,  and 
the  fauna  and  flora  of  this  unique  and  wonderful 
country.  I  am  not  sure  that  anything  has  arrested 
my  attention  more  than  the  crows  and  monkeys, 
which  are  among  the  most  familiar  friends  (and 
enemies)  of  the  people — impudent,  thievish,  funny, 
omnipresent.  I  have  heard  a  multitude  of  stories 
of  the  annoyance  they  cause  by  their  very  quick 
and  skillful  thieving.  They  will  snatch  food  out  of 
plates  being  carried  to  the  table,  and  are  ready  to 


TO  THE  HIMALAYAS. 


25 


seize  anything  one  is  bringing  home  from  market, 
unless  it  be  kept  covered.  One  of  our  missionary 
ladies  told  me  that  a  hawk  flew  down  and  seized  a 
piece  of  bread  and  butter  out  of  her  little  child's 
hand  and  bit  his  finger,  and  that  another  took 
from  her  a  chicken  which  she  was  preparing  for 
the  pot.  The  Hindus  hold  monkeys  sacred  and 
will  not  kill  them.  Because  of  this  superstition 
the  government  does  not  (in  some  regions)  dare  to 
kill  plague-stricken  monkeys,  but  conveys  them  far 
from  cities  and  villages,  and  turns  them  loose  in 
the  jungle. 

From  the  terminus  of  the  railroad  we  rode  and 
drove  over  fifteen  miles  up  the  mountain  side  to 
this  charming  place,  the  gem  of  mountain  resorts, 
Naini  Tal.  In  the  evening  we  attended  the  distri- 
bution of  prizes  at  Miss  Easton's  very  successful 
girls'  school,  which  has  one  hundred  and  one  board- 
ers. Of  course  I  had  to  make  a  little  speech.  On 
Saturday  I  presided  at  the  District  Conference, 
and  then  rode  a  mile  and  a  half  up  the  splendid, 
steep  mountain  path  to  the  Boys'  High  School. 

The  District  Conference  is  a  great  rallying  place 
for  native  preachers,  teachers,  and  Christian  peo- 
ple generally.  The  services  have  been  exceedingly 
interesting,  and  have  been  occasions  of  great  spir- 
itual refreshment.  On  Saturday  evening  we  ate  a 
"  native  dinner  "  with  the  brethren,  over  two  hun- 
dred in  number.  They  all  sat  on  the  floor  of  the 
church  and  ate  from  brass  plates,  with  their  fin- 
gers, vast  quantities  of  rice  with  a  little  meat 


26       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


shredded  in  it,  and  that  was  all.  Dr.  Goucher  and 
1  addressed  the  Conference  at  the  close  of  its  ses- 
sion this  morning,  and  were  listened  to  with  eager 
and  delighted  attention.  We  ourselves  had  been 
deeply  moved  not  only  by  the  services  of  the  Con- 
ference, but  by  the  cablegram  of  greeting  from  the 
General  Missionary  Committee  (in  session  in  Phila- 
delphia), received  on  Friday  and  answered  on  Sat- 
urday. That  message  seemed  to  bring  our  country, 
our  home  Church,  and  our  common  Lord,  very  near 
to  us. 

It  was  in  these  words : 

"  Brothers  Foss,  Thoburn,  and  Goucher  : 
"  We  are  one  with  you  in  spirit,  prayers,  and  work. 

"  [Signed]        NiNDE,  for  the  Committee." 

Our  answer  ran  thus  : 

"  Naini  Tal,  India,  November  13. 
"  General  Committee :  Greeting.  Exod.  John  4.  35,  36. 

"  [Signed]    Foss,  Thoburn,  Goucher." 

The  passages  referred  to  were  the  following : 

And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  Wherefore  criest  thou 
unto  me?  speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  that  they  go 
forward. 

Say  not  ye,  There  are  yet  four  months,  and  then  cometh 
harvest  ?  behold,  I  say  unto  you.  Lift  up  your  eyes,  and  look 
on  the  fields ;  for  they  are  white  already  to  harvest. 

And  he  that  reapeth  receiveth  wages,  and  gathereth  fruit 
unto  life  eternal :  that  both  he  that  soweth  and  he  that  reap- 
eth may  rejoice  together. 


NAINI  TAL,  THE  LAKE  OF  THE  GODDESS.  27 


CHAPTER  IV. 
Naini  Tal,  the  Lake  of  the  Goddess. 

AINI  TAL  will  always  be  remembered  as  the 


1  N  second  birthplace  of  Methodism  in  India. 
Rev.  Dr.  William  Butler,  the  founder  of  our  mis- 
sions here,  scattered  the  first  handful  of  seed  in 
Bareilly ;  but  the  great  Indian  mutiny  in  1857 
destroyed  every  vestige  of  that  planting,  and  the 
next  year  he  began  again  at  Naini  Tal — a  station 
among  the  foothills  of  the  Himalayas  securely  held 
by  British  arms,  sixty-two  hundred  feet  above  the 
sea  level,  and  a  most  charming  summer  resort  for 
missionaries,  teachers,  and  British  army  officers  and 
civilians. 

I  know  no  place  in  America  which  even  re- 
motely suggests  the  unique  and  marvelous  beau- 
ties and  grandeurs  of  Naini  Tal,  except  Lake 
Mohonk,  which  answers  only  as  a  faint  miniature. 
Naini  Tal,  the  lake  of  the  goddess  Naini,  is  a  mile 
in  length  and  a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  width — many 
times  larger  than  Lake  Mohonk,  twice  as  green, 
and  surrounded  by  very  steep,  densely  wooded  hills 
from  one  thousand  to  fifteen  hundred  feet  high, 
the  sides  of  which  are  gemmed  by  numerous  fine 
residences,  schools,  churches,  and  government  build- 
ings. This  lovely  mountain  city  cannot  be  reached 
by  a  carriage  ;  and  there  is  not  a  carriage  nor  a  cart 


28       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


moving  on  its  highways.  It  is  reached,  and  people 
travel  through  it,  -with,  ponies  and  dandies — that 
is,  peculiar  chairs  swung  between  poles  and  carried 
on  the  shoulders  of  coolies,  two  or  four  at  a  time 
according  to  the  weight  of  their  load,  and  replaced 
by  relays  every  three  or  four  minutes.  On  one  oc- 
casion a  team  of  eight  coolies  carried  me  to  and 
from  church,  a  distance  of  two  and  a  half  miles  in 
all,  for  four  cents  each.  Naini  Tal  is  distant  from 
Kathgodam,  the  terminus  of  the  railroad,  fifteen 
miles,  twelve  of  which  are  traveled  in  tongas — that 
is,  queer  little  two-wheeled  carts  for  four  passengers 
sitting  back  to  back,  with  their  baggage  strapped 
on  over  the  wheels — and  the  last  three  mles  up  a 
steep,  well-built,  zigzag  mountain  path  on  ponies 
or  in  dandies.  The  views  in  ascending  the  tortuous 
mountain  defile  are  most  inspiring,  and  increasingly 
so  as  one  nears  the  lake. 

One  of  the  great  glories  of  the  region  is  the 
view  of  "  the  snows,"  as  the  Himalayas  are  almost 
universally  termed,  Himalaya  meaning  "  the  abode 
of  snow."  From  an  elevation  a  thousand  feet 
above  the  lake  I  had  the  great  good  fortune  to  get 
the  view  of  the  stupendous  range  in  its  perfection 
for  an  hour  at  sunset,  and  the  next  morning  for 
another  hour  at  sunrise.  The  outlook  took  in 
more  than  a  quarter  of  the  whole  circle  of  the  hori- 
zon. Eight  or  nine  vast  billows  of  lower  moun- 
tain ranges  stretched  between  me  and  the  majestic 
range  of  the  Himalayas,  which  are  often  spoken  of 
as  "  the  roof  of  the  world."    They  were  from  forty 


NAINI  TAL,  THE  LAKE  OF  THE  GODDESS.  29 


to  a  hundred  miles  distant.  Sixty-three  peaks  of 
the  range,  clad  in  spotless  ermine,  as  the  golden 
sunset  left  them,  seemed  to  turn,  one  by  one,  into 
gray  heaps  of  frozen  ashes,  out  of  which  the  next 
morning  the  returning  sun  gave  them  glorious 
resurrection.  For  those  two  hours  I  have  no 
words.  They  cannot  be  repeated  for  me  else- 
where on  the  earth.  I  could  only  lift  my  heart  and 
mutely  say,  "  Thy  righteousness  is  like  the  great 
mountains." 

The  highest  mountain  in  sight,  Nunda  Devi,  is 
twenty-five  thousand  seven  hundred  feet  high  ;  and 
probably  no  peak  in  the  sixty-three  I  counted  is 
less  than  twenty  thousand  feet.  Beside  Nunda 
Devi  I  could  see  the  Pindar  glacier,  out  of  which 
bursts  one  of  the  chief  fountains  of  the  Ganges.  On 
my  descent  I  saw  the  fountain  head  of  a  grander 
river,  whose  first  spring  burst  forth  at  NainiTal  some 
forty  years  ago,  when  in  God's  name  William  Butler 
stretched  forth  the  rod  of  faith  and  smote  the  rock  ; 
and  lo !  India  Methodism.  The  rill  has  become  a 
river,  and  for  four  days  I  watched  its  steady  flow. 
At  one  end  of  the  lake  is  our  English-speaking 
church  ;  at  the  other  our  native  church  and  school, 
our  mission  compound,  containing  very  complete 
residences  for  two  missionaries,  and  a  sanitarium  ; 
and  on  the  two  sides,  far  up  on  the  cliffs,  two 
schools,  one  for  girls  and  one  for  boys.  Surely  this 
gem  of  the  Himalayas  is  no  longer  the  lake  of  the 
goddess  Naini,  but  Wesley  Lake. 

Bishop  Thoburn  had  thoughtfully  arranged  that 


30       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


on  leaving  Bombay  I  should  proceed  directly  to 
Naini  Tal,  and  have  my  first  view  of  our  native 
work  at  the  place  where  it  began.  That  work  can 
be  studied  best  not  at  the  Annual  Conferences,  but 
at  the  District  Conferences;  and  one  of  the  largest 
and  best  of  these  had  been  summoned  to  meet 
there.  The  District  Conference  really  originated 
in  India  as  a  manifest  necessity  of  our  work  there, 
and  had  been  in  successful  operation  years  before 
it  had  a  place  in  the  legislation  of  the  Church. 
The  attendance  was  large,  the  roll  of  actual  mem- 
bers of  the  body  numbering  over  fifty,  including 
presiding  elders,  heads  of  circuits,  local  deacons 
and  preachers,  teachers,  Bible  women,  and  other 
helpers.  At  the  District  Conferences  it  is  always 
expected  not  only  that  the  business  of  the  district 
and  of  the  circuits  shall  be  thoroughly  inspected, 
and  the  giving  and  renewing  of  licenses  very  care- 
fully attended  to,  but  that  there  shall  be  a  season 
of  great  spiritual  refreshment  and  quickening. 
Many  hearts,  I  am  sure,  realize  the  presence  and 
loving  communion  of  the  great  Head  of  the  Church. 
Among  the  constant  and  deeply  interested  atten- 
dants of  the  meeting  were  Miss  Budden,  the  prin- 
cipal of  our  school  work  at  Pithoragarh,  and  forty- 
six  women  and  girls  connected  with  her  school  and 
household,  whom  she  brought  nine  days'  march 
over  the  rough  mountain  paths  (twelve  miles  being 
a  march),  every  girl  carrying  a  weight  of  ten  pounds, 
and  every  woman  twenty-five  pounds. 

During  those  four  days  in  that  ever-memorable 


NAINI  TAL,  THE  LAKE  OF  THE  GODDESS.  31 


spot,  where  I  had  my  first  opportunity  for  careful 
observation  and  full  inquiry  about  our  work  among 
these  natives,  I  got  such  a  sense  as  I  could  not  utter 
if  I  would — and  until  I  shall  have  had  time  for 
"sober  second  thought"  would  not  utter  if  I 
could — concerning  the  reality,  the  depth,  and  the 
wonderful  scope  and  outlook  of  the  educational 
and  evangelizing  work  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  in  India. 

In  1880  there  was  an  alarming  landslip  down  the 
side  of  one  of  the  cliffs,  coming  to  the  very  margin 
of  the  lake.  Several  persons  were  buried  by  it. 
Many  soldiers  from  the  garrison  and  many  civilians 
rushed  to  their  rescue.  Three  hours  later,  without 
warning,  there  came  another  and  vastly  greater 
landslip,  which  destroyed  the  lives  of  nearly  all 
those  who  had  come  to  the  rescue.  It  is  estimated 
that  a  million  tons  of  earth  and  rock  burst  out 
of  the  mountain  side  and  came  down  into  the 
valley  and  into  the  lake.  There  had  just  been  three 
days  of  rain,  during  twenty-four  hours  of  which 
thirty-three  inches  of  water  had  fallen.  The  de- 
scending avalanche  came  close  to  our  mission  com- 
pound— one  of  the  missionaries  told  me  "within 
an  inch  " — and  yet  did  not  leave  or  take  a  shovel- 
ful of  earth.  Let  us  accept  this  as  a  good  omen. 
The  native  religions  in  India  may  have  their  land- 
slides ;  but  Christianity,  and  let  us  hope  the 
Methodist  type  of  it,  has  come  to  India  to  stay 
until  time  shall  be  no  more. 
3 


32       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


CHAPTER  V. 
Back  to  the  Plains. 

MoRADABAD,  Saturday,  November  20,  1897. 

SINCE  leaving  Naini  Tal  we  have  had  three 
more  days  of  observation — in  Bareilly,  Fateh- 
ganj,  and  Moradabad.  In  Bareilly  we  visited  the 
Boys'  School  and  Hospital,  with  its  dispensary  and 
medical  training  class,  the  Theological  School,  the 
Woman's  Bible  School,  the  Kindergarten,  and  the 
Orphanage,  which  has  three  hundred  and  fifty-one 
girls,  of  whom  one  hundred  and  fifty  were  "  fam- 
ine waifs."  The  Woman's  Bible  School  is  for  the 
wives  of  native  preachers  and  for  Bible  readers  and 
other  teachers.  Forty  two  women  were  present, 
nineteen  of  whom  were  pursuing  their  lessons  with 
babies  sitting  on  their  feet,  and  many  of  them 
having  larger  children  in  the  Kindergarten.  At  a 
similar  school  at  Fatehganj  yesterday  I  spoke 
about  my  wife's  many  years'  interest  in  the  work  of 
the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society,  and 
conveyed  to  them  her  greetings  as  the  new  presi- 
dent of  that  society.  Instantly  everyone  sprang 
to  her  feet  (the  seventeen  babies  leaping  astride  the 
hips  of  their  mothers)  and  gave  Mrs.  Foster  a  pro- 
found salaam,  which  they  charged  me  through  Dr. 
Parker  to  send  to  her.  These  scenes  are  indescrib- 
able, at  least  by  my  pen,  and  I  wished  I  might  have  a 


BACK  TO  THE  PLAINS. 


33 


stenographer  at  my  beck  and  call  every  odd 
minute. 

At  Bareilly  I  was  delightfully  entertained  by  the 
Rev.  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Scott.  In  our  first  evening's 
conversation  Dr.  Scott  told  me  that  venomous  ser- 
pents had  been  killed  in  every  room  in  his  house ; 
that  his  wife  had  twice  been  bitten  by  scorpions  ; 
that  he  never  thought  of  putting  his  feet  on  the 
floor  when  he  got  out  of  bed  until  he  had  first  put 
on  his  slippers,  etc.,  etc. ;  but  that  these  unwelcome 
intruders  were  then  supposed  to  be  in  winter  quar- 
ters. I  slept  soundly,  and  the  next  morning  Mrs. 
Scott  told  me  that  she  came  into  the  parlor  just  in 
time  to  prevent  a  large  goat  from  walking  into  my 
room  before  I  was  up.    Queer  companions ! 

Sunday  afternoon. 

I  preached  this  morning  at  eight  o'clock,  through 
an  interpreter,  and  had  good  attention,  but  found 
it  a  very  awkward  way  to  speak.  There  was  a  very 
large  congregation,  including  several  Mohammed- 
ans and  high-caste  Hindus,  some  of  whom  were 
government  officers.  At  half  past  ten  last  night  I 
was  wakened  by  an  earthquake,  which  shook  my 
bed  three  times  very  distinctly.  In  the  morning 
everyone  was  talking  about  it,  and  we  now  almost 
fear  to  hear  from  Calcutta  and  other  cities. 

The  lady  in  charge  of  our  girls'  school  in  this 
place  is  highly  esteemed  for  her  excellent  work, 
as  are  also  the  pastor  and  his  wife.  I  find  that 
many  missionaries'  wives  are  constantly  busy  with 


34       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

religious  work,  and  are  very  useful.  It  is  quite  the 
custom  for  the  bishop,  in  reading  the  appointments 
of  the  lady  teachers  at  the  Conference,  to  read  also 
appointments  for  all  the  missionaries'  wives. 

No  words  which  I  could  frame,  even  if  I  were  to 
write  a  large  book,  could  express  the  sense  which 
these  visitations  of  the  last  three  weeks  have 
brought  me  of  the  reality,  the  depth,  and  the 
vast  and  wonilcrful  scope  of  the  missionary  work 
which  our  Church  has  already  done  in  India;  and 
yet  my  observations  have  only  just  begun.  The 
school  work,  running  through  all  grades  from  the 
very  humblest  primary  village  school  to  the  theo- 
logical seminary  at  Bareilly,  has  very  deeply  im- 
pressed me.  We  have  1,249  schools  of  all  grades, 
with  32,243  pupils.  Wc  have  77,963  communicants 
in  the  churches  and  83,229  Sunday  school  scholars. 
I  have  seen  many  of  the  converts,  and  many  of 
the  children  and  youth  of  the  schools,  and  the 
young  men  of  the  Theological  School.  I  have 
heard  their  singing  and  their  prayers,  and  have 
heard  statements  concerning  their  experience  in 
Christian  life,  carefully  given  by  many  of  the  mis- 
sionaries, and  am  persuaded  that  Christianity  and 
Methodism  are  imperishably  planted  in  India. 


A  UNIQUE  CAMP  MEETING. 


35 


CHAPTER  VI. 
A  Unique  Camp  Meetingf. 

Hatiiras,  November  27,  1897. 

IN  company  with  Dr.  Gouclier  and  Bishop  Tho- 
burn,  I  spent  four  days  at  the  Hathras  mehi,  or 
camp  meeting,  in  northern  India.  At  the  station 
we  found  a  Hne  of  our  native  Christians  and  of  our 
children  from  the  schools,  with  a  few  of  our  Ameri- 
can missionaries  at  the  head  of  the  line,  drawn  up 
on  each  side  of  a  path  a  third  of  a  mile  in  length,  to 
receive  us  with  a  band  of  native  music,  with  the 
sound  of  firecrackers  and  other  explosives,  and  with 
lofty  songs,  because  we  came  as  the  representatives 
of  the  great  mother  Church,  which  had  made  possi- 
ble to  them  the  knowledge  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ.  Unique  indeed  were  the  scenes  of 
those  four  days,  as  under  the  spreading  banyan  trees 
we  joined  these  people  in  their  religious  services. 
We  tried  to  get  at  the  question  whether  this  was 
really  Christianity  that  we  saw,  and  the  genuine 
Methodist  type  of  it,  and  whether  the  converts  were 
converted.  In  our  daily  attendance  at  the  meetings 
we  had  interpreters  sitting  beside  us  to  keep  us 
posted.  On  the  Sabbath  morning  several  of  the 
recent  converts  were  baptized.  There  was  among 
them  an  old,  gray-haired  man  who  for  many  years 
had  been  a  fakir,  but  had  forsaken  his  idolatry,  and 


36       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


was  sitting  at  the  feet  of  Jesus.  When  I  was  about 
to  administer  the  rite  of  holy  baptism  to  him, 
after  he  had  been  closely  questioned  by  Bishop 
Thoburn,  the  old  man,  as  his  last  break  from  idol- 
atry, took  off  his  rosary  and  cast  it  down  at  my 
feet,  as  though  to  say,  "  My  heathenism  is  at  an 
end  ;  tell  my  friends  in  America  that  my  only  trust 
is  in  the  precious  blood  of  the  Lamb."  I  prize  this 
fine  rosary  not  only  because  of  its  intrinsic  value, 
but  because  of  its  associations  with  the  religious 
superstition  of  its  pagan  owner  almost  from  his 
boyhood.  His  name  had  been  Bharat  Das  (Fight- 
ing Servant),  but  he  had  it  changed  to  Krisht  Bal 
Das  (Strong  Servant  of  Christ).  My  brother,  I 
hope  to  meet  thee  at  our  Master's  feet  ! 

At  night  we  often  heard  the  sharp  bark  of  jack- 
als near  by;  but  the  camp  was  guarded  by  an 
ample  patrol,  chiefly  to  prevent  the  jackals  from 
carrying  off  little  children,  as  they  sometimes  do. 

The  testimonies  of  the  native  Christians  sur- 
prised me  by  their  freshness,  earnestness,  and  spir- 
itual power;  giving  certain  proof  of  clear  and  ear- 
nest personal  religious  experience.  One  hundred 
and  eighteen  spoke  in  forty-six  minutes,  and  they 
had  time  for  several  songs,  which  they  sang  with 
great  spirit.  These  Christians  had  not  been  in  the 
service  long  enough  to  get  stereotyped  speeches. 
I  will  give  you  some  of  the  testimonies,  not  selected, 
but  in  regular  order. 

"  I  know  God  has  saved  me,  for,  before  God,  my 
buying  and  selling  are  honest." 


A  UNIQUE  CAMP  MEETING. 


37 


"This  is  always  before  my  mind,  '  If  you  are 
Christ's,  walk  according  to  his  Spirit.' 

"  Some  say  they  were  blessed  here,  and  some 
say  they  were  blessed  in  another  place  ;  but  as  for 
me,  Christ  is  blessing  me  all  the  time." 

"  As  Christ  said  Satan  had  no  part  in  him,  so  I 
can  say  my  possessions  are  in  no  way  connected 
with  Satan." 

"  Christ  not  only  gives  me  the  orders*  b)'  which 
lam  living,  but  he  also  fills  my  life  with  his  peace." 

"I  was  a  great  sinner;  but,  according  to  his 
promise,  now  he  is  with  me  all  the  while." 

"  Since  coming  here  I  have  been  greatly  blessed  ; 
for  God  has  shown  me  things  in  my  life  that  be- 
fore I  did  not  know  were  contrary  to  his  will,  and 
when  the  Spirit  showed  them  to  me  I  asked  Christ, 
and  he  has  taken  them  away." 

"  I  testify  that  faith  in  Christ  means  life  and 
peace." 

"  Since  coming  here  I  have  been  feeding  on  the 
promises  of  Christ,  and  they  have  made  my  soul 
fat  and  strong,  and  I  am  anxious  to  show  his  power 
by  my  works." 

"  Since  coming  here  the  Holy  Spirit  has  let  the 
light  into  my  heart,  and  showed  me  snakes  and 
dirt  where  I  thought  it  was  all  clean.  Now  his 
love  warms  and  cleanses  it." 

"  Christ  has  saved  me  from  the  slavery  and  stain 
of  sin,  and  I  know  my  Saviour  is  upon  the  throne 
in  heaven." 

"  Since  Christ  has  come  into  my  life,  though  the 


33       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


outside  has  been  rough,  the  inside  has  been 
peace." 

In  the  midst  of  ahnost  constant  travel  and  ob- 
servation in  the  interests  of  our  missions  I  had 
found  time  for  one  day  in  Delhi  and  one  in  Agra. 
In  Delhi  I  saw  the  richest  and  most  beautiful  of  all 
the  palaces  of  the  old  Moguls,  and  also  two  very 
famous  mosques,  one  said  to  be  the  most  spacious 
and  imposing  in  the  world,  and  the  other  a  perfect 
little  jewel  of  high  art,  called  the  Pearl  Mosque. 
In  Agra  I  saw  a  much  more  spacious  and  also 
really  magnificent  palace,  and  the  incomparably 
beautiful  and  majestic  tomb,  the  Taj  Mahal,  whose 
massive  dome  rises  to  the  height  of  nearly  three 
hundred  feet. 

Knowing  that  we  had  just  come  from  this  most 
famous  Taj,  one  of  the  five  or  six  native  brethren, 
who  gave  brief  addresses  of  welcome  at  the  mela 
here  last  evening,  made  a  touching  and  really 
beautiful  allusion  to  it.  He  remarked  that  the 
jewels  of  the  Taj,  many  of  which  had  been  stolen 
by  vandal  hands,  were  not  to  be  compared  with 
the  jewels  before  us,  which  are  being  polished  for 
the  crown  of  our  ascended  Lord,  and  which  can 
never  be  stolen,  since  they  are  even  now  held  in 
his  omnipotent  hand. 

This  morning  I  attended  four  meetings  here : 
two  District  Conferences,  each  having  present  about 
one  hundred  members,  including  presiding  elders, 
preachers  in  charge,  local  preachers,  exhorters,  and 
teachers ;  and  two  somewhat  smaller  meetings  of 


A  UNIQUE  CAMP  MEETING. 


39 


women,  one  presided  over  by  my  hostess  and  the 
other  by  a  native  presiding  elder's  wife.  In  both 
of  the  women's  meetings,  after  brief  addresses,  I 
presented  the  letter  of  greeting  which  I  had 
brought  from  the  Philadelphia  branch  of  the 
Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society.  It  was,  of 
course,  translated  to  the  women.  They  heard  it 
with  the  greatest  interest,  and  asked  me  to  return 
their  loving  greetings. 

At  noon  we  had  a  very  impressive  love  feast,  at 
the  close  of  which  I  had  an  interview  with  Prabhu 
Das,  a  native  exhorter-evangelist,  blind  from  his 
boyhood.  He  read  to  me  very  rapidly  from  his 
Bible — with  his  finger,  of  course — and  sang  to  me 
in  English,  "  Jesus  Saves  a  Sinful  Man."  He  then 
said  with  great  emotion,  "  I  know  I  am  a  child  of 
God."  I  took  his  hand,  and  added,  "  So  am  I,  and 
therefore  we  are  brothers." 

November  29,  1897. 

We  left  Hathras  this  morning  at  5:30,  having 
been  obliged  to  get  up  at  4:30  to  get  cJiota  haziri, 
and  to  pack  our  beds  and  other  things.  We  drove 
six  miles  in  a  very  spacious  and  comfortable  car- 
riage belonging  to  the  rajah  of  the  place,  whose 
officer  sent  it  with  a  polite  note  saying  it  was  to 
"  reach  "  the  reverend  travelers  to  the  station. 

The  Sabbath  was  passed  very  delightfully  in 
camp.  One  of  the  meetings  of  the  day  of  great  in- 
terest was  the  temperance  meeting.  In  this  country 
our  people  are  making  a  great  point  not  only  against 


40       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


all  intoxicating  drinks,  but  against  tobacco,  the 
smoking  of  which  is  very  common  among  the  na- 
tives. It  seems  to  me  that  nothing  could  better 
show  the  sincerity  of  their  religious  profession  than 
the  fact  that  the  most  of  them  give  up  smoking 
altogether,  and  in  several  of  the  Conferences  this 
is  absolutely  required  in  order  to  the  licensing  of  a 
local  preacher.  The  interest  of  the  mela  culmi- 
nated last  evening  in  the  service  of  baptism  and  the 
Lord's  Supper.  Four  adults  and  about  thirty  chil- 
dren were  baptized.  Dr.  Goucher  and  I  officiated 
alternately.  There  were  very  nearly  two  thousand 
Christians,  including  the  baptized  children,  in  the 
camp.  At  the  close  of  the  service  last  night  Dr. 
Goucher  and  I  gave  brief  addresses  of  farewell,  and 
had  abundant  evidence  that  our  visit  had  given 
great  satisfaction  not  only  to  the  American  mis- 
sionaries, but  to  the  native  brethren.  Our  four 
days  there  were  certainly  a  very  unique  experience, 
and  gave  us  such  an  insight  into  the  native  work 
as  we  could  not  have  obtained  otherwise. 

I  think  I  must  give  you  a  little  notion  of  our 
daily  bill  of  fare.  Chota  haziri,  served  in  bed, 
consisting  of  strong  Indian  tea  and  toast,  at  7  A.  M. 
A  good,  hearty  breakfast  at  10.  Tiffin  at  2.  Din- 
ner at  6.  Tea  again  at  10  P.  M.  It  seems  to  me 
that  a  large  part  of  the  time  in  India  is  passed  in 
eating,  and  thus  far  I  have  found  the  food  unex- 
pectedly good. 


THE  MOGULS. 


41 


CHAPTER  VII. 

The  Mog:uIs;  their  Tyrannical  Rule  and  Splendid 
Architecture. 

IN  the  present  population  of  India  can  be  seen  an 
epitome  of  her  past  history.  There,  passing  and 
repassing  in  the  streets,  are  EngHshman  and  Mo- 
hammedan, Hindu  and  pariah,  while  reaching  far 
into  the  past  are  their  ancestors,  who  successively 
struggled  for  the  mastery  in  that  great  land.  First, 
some  prehistoric  tribes,  whose  race  we  have  no 
means  of  determining.  Then,  about  two  thousand 
years  before  Christ,  came  the  Aryan  invaders  from 
the  region  south  and  east  of  the  Caspian  Sea,  and, 
entering  India  from  the  northwest,  they  took  pos- 
session of  it,  driving  out  and  killing  many  of  the 
original  inhabitants,  and  subjugating  the  rest.  The 
descendants  of  those  thus  dispossessed  are  now  prob- 
ably found  among  the  outcasts  and  in  some  of  the 
lowest  castes  of  India  ;  their  conquerors  are  repre- 
sented in  the  Hindu  of  to-day.  Alexander  found 
them  ruling  India  when,  in  327  B.  C,  he  entered 
the  Punjab,  hoping  to  push  on  and  conquer  the 
land.  He  was  forced  by  the  complaints  of  his 
army  to  turn  back  and  let  that  remain  the  most 
easterly  point  in  his  conquests.  He  went  down  the 
Indus  and  founded  a  city,  now  Hyderabad  in  Sindh, 
and  sent  his  admiral,  Nearchus,  to  rediscover  the  sea 


42       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


route  to  India,  which  has  been  known  to  Europeans 
ever  since  that  time. 

The  next  invaders,  however,  came  over  the  same 
route  taken  by  the  others,  by  land  from  the  Pun- 
jab. About  the  year  looo  A.  D.,  Mohammedan 
rulers  obtained  a  foothold  in  northern  India,  and 
for  eight  hundred  years  the  country  was  governed 
by  a  line  of  sixty-five  absolute  monarchs,  who,  with 
three  or  four  exceptions,  were  among  the  most 
bigoted  and  ferocious  wretches  the  world  has  ever 
seen  on  thrones,  any  one  of  whom  might  have  sat 
for  the  portrait  given  by  Tom  Moore : 

"  One  of  that  saintly,  murderous  brood, 

To  carnage  and  the  Koran  given, 
Who  think  through  unbelievers'  blood 

Lies  their  directest  path  to  heaven  ; 
One  who  will  pause  and  kneel  unshod 

In  the  warm  blood  his  hand  hath  poured, 
To  mutter  o'er  some  text  of  God 

Engraven  on  his  reeking  sword  ; 
Nay,  who  can  coolly  note  the  line, 
The  letters  of  those  words  divine, 
To  which  his  blade,  with  searching  art. 
Had  sunk  into  his  victim's  heart." 

In  the  last  half  of  the  sixteenth  century,  just  at 

the  tiine  when  Elizabeth  was  giving  her  name  to 

one  of  the  most  brilliant  periods  in  English  history, 

there  rose  in  India  a  great  Mohammedan  ruler, 

Akbar.    Between  1556  and  1605,  the  dates  of  his 

reign,  he  extended  his  power  over  a  larger  part  of 

India  than  had  ever  before  been  under  one  ruler. 

He  organized  it  with  great  thoroughness,  established 

an  exceedingly  effective  military  system,  and  built 

roads  connecting  far  distant  parts  of  his  empire. 


THE  MOGULS. 


43 


He  was  the  founder  of  the  Mogul  Empire,  which 
continued  at  the  height  of  its  power  for  a  century 
after  his  death,  and  then  gradually  decayed  until 
the  last  of  the  Great  Moguls  fell  in  1857. 

The  reign  of  Akbar's  son,  Jahdngir,  is  interest- 
ing to  us,  chiefly  because  during  it  English  traders 
established  themselve.s  at  Surat  and  sent  an  em- 
bassy to  the  Great  Mogul. 

He  was  followed  by  Shah  Jahdn,  Mogul  from  1627 
to  1658.  It  is  almost  impossible  to  believe  that  so 
much  could  have  been  crowded  into  the  thirty  years 
of  his  reign.  For  the  greatest  gifts  the  Moguls  have 
left  us  are  their  wonderful  buildings,  and  of  these 
the  most  wonderful  were  erected  by  Shah  Jahan. 
Under  him  the  empire  reached  its  greatest  magnifi- 
cence. His  power  can  be  seen  from  the  fact  that 
he  was  able  to  collect  so  much  money  from  the 
people  for  his  use.  It  is  said  that  the  Moguls  got 
vastly  more  money  out  of  India  in  proportion  to  the 
number  of  people  they  ruled  than  does  England. 

Shah  Jahan  rebuilt  Delhi,  which  is  the  city  most 
closely  connected  with  the  history  of  the  Moguls. 
In  it  are  three  wonderful  buildings  ;  the  palace,  the 
Pearl  Mosque,  and  the  Jumna  Musjid,  or  Great 
Mosque.  Of  these  the  first  and  the  last  were  built 
by  Shah  Jahan,  the  Pearl  Mosque  by  his  son. 

The  Great  Mosque  is  notable  chiefly  as  being 
the  largest  mosque  in  the  world,  and  as  having  a 
magnificently  commanding  position  on  a  rise  of 
ground,  up  which  leads  a  most  imposing  series  of 
steps. 


44       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


The  palace  is  full  of  interest  because  of  the  part 
it  has  played  in  history,  and  also  because  of  what 
even  now  remains  of  its  great  magnificence.  Much 
of  the  decorations  has  been  destroyed,  and  many 
of  the  precious  stones  which  were  once  inlaid  in 
patterns  on  the  walls  have  been  carried  away ;  but 
the  Decvvan  Khass,  or  private  audience  room,  is 
still  very  beautiful.  Its  many  gently  rounding 
arches  and  its  general  style  call  to  mind,  as  do 
other  specimens  of  Mogul  buildings,  the  Moorish 
architecture  in  Spain,  and  suggest  the  cotmection 
between  the  Mohammedan  conquerors  of  Spain 
and  of  India.  The  throne  room  is  of  white  marble, 
exquisitely  inland  in  gold  and  floral  designs  in  red 
stones.  In  the  center  of  the  room,  on  a  marble 
elevation,  there  stood  the  wonderful  Peacock  Throne, 
the  cost  of  which  is  estimated  by  some  writers  to 
have  been  as  much  as  $150,000,000.  Dr.  Butler 
thus  describes  it  in  Tlic  Land  of  the  Veda:  "This 
wondrous  work  of  art  was  ascended  by  steps  of 
silver,  at  the  summit  of  which  rose  a  massive  seat 
of  pure  gold,  with  a  canopy  of  the  same  metal  inlaid 
with  jewels.  The  chief  feature  of  the  design  was  a 
peacock  with  his  tail  spread,  the  natural  color  being 
represented  by  pure  gems.  A  vine  also  was  intro- 
duced into  the  design,  the  leaves  and  fruit  of  which 
were  of  precious  stones,  whose  rays  were  reflected 
from  mirrors  set  in  large  pearls." 

Of  the  Great  Mogul's  crown  Dr.  Butler  says : 
"  The  crown  worn  on  the  head  of  the  Great  Mogul 
was  worthy  of  the  Khass  and  the  throne  on  which 


THE  MOGULS. 


45 


he  sat.  It  was  made  by  the  great  Akbar  in  the 
fashion  of  that  worn  by  the  Persian  kings,  and  was 
of  extraordinary  beauty  and  magnificence.  It  had 
twelve  points,  each  surmounted  by  a  diamond  of 
the  purest  water,  while  the  central  point  terminated 
in  a  single  pearl  of  extraordinary  size  ;  the  whole, 
including  many  valuable  rubies,  being  estimated  at 
a  cost  equivalent  to  $10,350,000.  Add  one  thing 
more,  the  Koh-i-noor  diamond  on  his  brow,  and 
you  have  the  Mogul  '  in  all  his  glory,'  as  he  sat  on 
the  Peacock  Throne  in  his  Deewan  Khass,  surround- 
ed by  Mohammedan  princes,  by  turbaned  and  jew- 
eled rajahs,  amid  splendor  which  only  the  gorgeous 
East  could  furnish,  and  the  fame  of  which  seems  to 
the  poor  courts  of  Europe  of  that  day  like  the  tales 
of  the  Arabian  Nights.  In  1739  Nadir  Shah, 
the  Persian  invader,  sacked  Delhi,  massacred  many 
of  the  people,  and  carried  off  the  Peacock  Throne 
with  pomp  and  ostentation  so  great  as  to  show  his 
appreciation  of  his  prize.  Later  the  throne  was 
broken  up  and  its  jewels  scattered.  On  the  Deewan 
Khass  is  inscribed  a  Persian  couplet,  which  Moore 
translates  thus : 

"For,  oh!  if  there  be  an  Elysium  on  earth, 
It  is  this,  it  is  this." 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  the  designer  of  the  Peacock 
Throne,  probably  of  the  Taj,  and  possibly  of  Shah 
Jahan's  other  buildings,  was  Austin  de  Bordeaux, 
a  Frenchman.  He  had  been  exiled  from  France 
and  found  his  way  to  the  court  of  Shah  Jahdn, 
where  he  was  held  in  the  highest  regard. 


46       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


Shah  Jahcin's  favorite  city  was  not  Delhi,  but 
Agra,  which  he  greatly  enlarged  and  which  he 
made  his  capital.  There,  too,  he  built  a  palace,  a 
Pearl  Mosque,  and  a  Great  Mosque,  but  the  thing 
which  secures  to  him  lasting  gratitude  is  the  Taj 
Mahal,  that  incomparable  mausoleum,  which  he 
built  some  three  miles  from  Agra  for  his  favorite 
wife,  Mumtaz  i  Mahal,  and  in  which  he  lies  buried 
beside  her.  It  is  said  that  twenty  thousand  men 
were  engaged  twenty-two  years  in  its  construction, 
and  that  it  cost  $60,000,000.  Tourists  and  artists 
without  number  have  tasked  the  powers  of  many 
languages  in  descriptions  of  the  Taj,  but  it  may  be 
doubted  whether  anyone  has  succeeded  better 
than  Mr.  Julian  Hawthorne,  from  whose  descrip- 
tion published  in  the  Cosmopolitan  Magazine  for 
November,  1897,  the  following  extracts  are  taken: 

"  I  came  to  a  gate,  as  it  is  called — anywhere  else 
it  would  be  called  a  palace.  It  is  of  red  stone,  in- 
laid with  white  marble  in  arabesque  designs.  .  .  . 
It  brought  me  to  the  garden,  half  a  mile  long  and 
a  quarter  of  a  mile  wide,  through  which  you  must 
pass  to  reach  the  immortal  tomb. 

"  Down  the  midst  of  the  entire  length  of  the  gar- 
den is  a  stone-rimmed  tank.  .  .  .  Water  plants 
grow  in  it,  and  goldfish  swim  among  the  slender 
stems  of  the  flowers.  The  garden  is  full  of  serried 
trees  and  beds  of  smiling  flowers.  It  is  a  great 
living  rectangle  of  deep  green  and  bright  color, 
flung  down  before  the  snowy  splendor  beyond. 

"  But  as  you  pass  through  the  soaring  arch  of  the 


THE  MOGULS. 


47 


gate  your  eye  falls  upon  the  polished  surface  of  the 
long-drawn  water,  and  in  that  mirror  you  sec  the 
spirit  of  the  Taj,  the  dream  of  an  enchantment  too 
fair  for  this  world.  Do  not  look  up  yet  to  deter- 
mine whether  the  dream  has  a  reality  beyond  it. 
As  you  pass  along  you  feel  that  alabaster  mighti- 
ness ascending  skyward,  but  school  yourself  awhile 
before  you  presume  to  accept  its  celestial  challenge. 
Halfway  down  the  garden  is  a  raised  marble  plat- 
form with  seats  upon  it.  .  .  .  Take  your  place  in  the 
center  of  it,  and  then  summon  up  all  that  is  pure 
and  lofty  in  your  heart  and  lift  your  eyes  and  look. 

"  So  perfect  are  the  proportions  of  the  edifice 
and  its  surroundings  that  the  Taj  does  not  seem 
overlarge  ;  the  eye  compasses  it  in  a  long  glance, 
and  it  takes  its  place  forever  in  the  soul. 

"  The  design  of  the  building  is  as  simple  as  it  is 
matchless;  as  simple  as  a  flower.  Domed  pavil- 
ions surround  the  central  dome.  The  facade  cen- 
ters in  a  pointed  arch,  the  panels  inlaid  with  pre- 
cious marbles,  of  hues  like  precious  stones,  form- 
ing a  flowing  pattern  refined  as  the  tracery  of 
ferns.  .  .  .  Midway  in  the  base  of  the  arch  is  the 
door  of  entrance — a  little  rectangle  of  dark  in  the 
tender  whiteness.  It  gives  the  finishing  touch  and 
the  scale  of  the  whole.  .  .  .  Beauty  abides  within 
the  Taj  as  well  as  without,  and  after  sitting  long 
to  gaze  in  the  garden  I  traversed  the  remainder  of 
the  avenue  .  .  .  gained  the  little  door — little  now 
no  longer — and  passed  through  into  the  dim  but 

clear  interior.  .  .  . 
4. 


48       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


"After  the  first  few  moments  the  dimness  becomes 
wholly  transparent,  so  that  the  smallest  details  of 
beauty  are  visible.  It  is  a  wondrous  light,  such  as 
might  dwell  in  the  windings  of  a  pearl  shell.  .  .  . 

"  The  Taj  Mahal  belongs  not  to  the  sultan  and 
his  sultana,  but  to  all  the  world.  When  we  create 
true  beauty  it  ceases  to  be  ours.  It  is  free  to  all, 
yet  sacred  to  each.  It  is  the  incarnation  of  the 
holiest  and  purest  elements  of  human  life.  And 
India,  cursed  though  it  now  be  with  pestilence, 
famine,  bloodshed,  and  idolatry,  still  wears  upon 
her  tortured  forehead  the  jewel  of  the  world — the 
Taj  Mahal." 

Shah  Jahdn  reminds  one  of  that  greatest  of  Bab- 
ylonian kings,  Nebuchadnezzar,  who  rebuilt  Baby- 
lon, but  whose  greatest  architectural  triumph  was 
the  .  Hanging  Gardens,  which  he  built  to  please 
Amytis,  his  queen,  who,  living  on  the  plains  of 
Babylon,  longed  for  the  mountains  of  her  early  home. 
The  Taj  is  the  one  piece  of  Mogul  architecture 
which  has  been  unharmed  by  time  or  war.  The 
other  buildings  are  half  in  ruins  and  despoiled  of 
their  jewels  and  precious  metals.  But  it  has 
seemed  as  if  all  men  were  unwilling  to  mar  the 
perfect  beauty  of  this  love-shrine  of  Shah  Jahdn, 
which  is  worthy  to  be  compared  to  Dante's  expres- 
sion of  his  love  for  Beatrice,  the  Divine  Comedy. 

By  tragic  contrast,  the  sons  of  Shah  Jahan  and 
Mumtaz  i  Mahal  intrigued  against  their  father  and 
each  other;  one  of  them,  Aurangzeb,  succeeded 
in  usurping  the  throne  and  banishing  Shah  Jahdn. 


THE  MOGULS. 


49 


In  this  reign  the  Mogul  Empire  reached  its  great- 
est power,  but  also  the  beginning  of  its  decay. 
Aurangzcb  removed  the  capital  to  Delhi,  where  it 
afterward  remained,  and  there  erected  the  Pearl 
Mosque,  a  building  as  perfect  as  the  gem  whose 
name  it  bears,  small,  but  faultless  in  detail. 

The  construction  of  roads,  the  military  despot- 
ism, the  oppressive  taxation,  the  public  buildings 
of  the  Moguls,  all  suggest  the  Roman  Empire  in  its 
grandeur.  Like  it,  the  empire  of  the  Moguls  fell 
into  decay ;  uprisings  of  outlying  tribes,  divisions 
into  smaller  parts  under  independent  nabobs,  the 
ever-increasing  power  of  England — these  and  other 
causes  conspired  to  render  the  title  of  Great  Mogul 
the  merest  name.  As  the  Mogul  Empire  declined, 
the  British  Empire  grew.  Portugal  had  control 
of  the  East  India  trade  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
but  early  in  the  seventeenth  century  England, 
like  Holland,  France,  and  Denmark,  established 
coast  trading  stations  in  India  and  an  East  India 
Company.  England  steadily  grew  in  wealth  and 
power,  until,  in  the  eighteenth  century,  she  was 
forced  into  aggressive  action.  The  Mogul  Empire 
had  been  succeeded  by  anarchy,  and  the  French 
were  a  constant  menace.  Therefore,  in  1760, 
England  drove  the  French  from  India,  and  in 
1 761,  in  the  battle  of  Plassey,  conquered  Bengal. 
Since  that  time  her  power  has  been  steadily  in- 
creasing and  extending,  until  now  it  includes 
practically  all  India,  since  the  few  princes,  nomi- 
nally independent,  are  really  subject.    In  1857  the 


50        FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


last  of  the  Moguls,  Bahodur  Shah,  was  active  in 
bringing  about  the  Great  Mutiny,  in  which  Hindus 
and  Mohammedans  made  common  cause  against 
the  English.  In  the  beautiful  palace  built  at  Delhi 
by  Shah  Jahan,  this  last  Mogul  and  his  queen 
plotted  against  the  English  government.  In  the 
Decwan  Khass  he  received  his  English  masters  with 
most  traitorous  suavity  and  deceit;  there  he  issued 
the  orders  by  which  every  Christian  who  could  be 
found  in  Delhi  was  murdered  with  barbarity  inde- 
scribable ;  in  the  same  room  he  received  from  the 
British  officers  his  sentence  of  banishment  as  a 
traitor  to  Burma,  and  a  few  weeks  later  the  Deewan 
Khass  became  a  soldiers'  hospital. 


FIFTEEN  HUNDRED  MILES  SOUTHWARD.  51 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


Fifteen  Hundred  Miles  Southward ;  from  Hathras  to 


HE  journey  from  Hathras  was  broken  only  by  a 


1  stop  of  twenty-four  hours  at  Baroda  and  Bhalej 
— two  very  "busy  Bs."  We  reached  Baroda  at  lo 
P.  M.,  had  the  usual  long  delay  for  coolies  to  get  our 
baggage,  saw  before  midnight  a  boys'  school  and  a 
girls'school  under  the  care  of  our  missionaries, pitied 
the  poor  little  children  who  had  to  be  on  exhibition 
so  late,  and  went  early  the  next  morning,  by  a  short 
railway  journey,  to  Bhalej.  There  we  had  a  very 
wonderful  day  in  a  camp  meeting  under  fine  banyan 
trees,  with  fourteen  hundred  members  of  our  Church 
present,  all  of  whom  had  been  heathen  only  three 
years  before.  We  baptized  two  hundred  and  twen- 
ty-five new  converts,  and  declined  to  baptize  three 
hundred  more  who  offered  themselves,  but  who  had 
not  been  sufficiently  instructed.  The  curious  in- 
terest with  which  many  of  the  people  came  to  the 
platform  between  the  services  and  spied  around  a 
little  cottage  organ,  to  find  out  where  the  music 
came  from  ;  the  wondering  attention  of  many  hun- 
dreds of  heathen  and  Mohammedans,  crowding  on 
the  outskirts  of  the  audience,  with  rude  agricul- 
tural implements  on  their  shoulders  ;  and  the  unut- 
terably hungry  look  on  many  faces  as  we  spoke  of 


Bombay  and  Madras. 


Bombay,  December  7. 


52       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


the  miracles  of  God's  grace  and  love — made  a  pic- 
ture long  to  be  remembered. 

Our  two  missionaries  there  ride  their  wide  cir- 
cuits on  camels,  finding  them  cheaper  than  horses, 
because  they  can  "  board  themselves."  There  I  had 
my  first  camel  ride,  and  I  do  not  care  for  another. 

The  Bombay  Conference  was  the  first  held  under 
the  new  arrangement  of  joint  superintendency. 
Bishop  Thoburn  and  I  had  agreed  that  we  should 
preside  in  the  Conferences  on  alternate  days  and 
at  the  opening  sessions  of  alternate  Conferences, 
and  also  that  the  one  who  opened  any  Conference 
should  give  place  to  the  other  to  read  the  appoint- 
ments at  its  close.  He  courteously  invited  me  to 
open  this  Conference. 

The  session  of  the  Conference  was  an  occasion 
of  delightful  Christian  fellowship  between  Ameri- 
cans, Eurasians,  and  full-blooded  natives,  of  familiar 
social  converse  for  which  daily  opportunity  was 
afforded  while  we  lunched  in  the  spacious  rooms 
of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  near  by, 
and  of  most  anxious  consideration  of  ways  and 
means  to  carry  forward,  or  at  least  to  prevent  the 
curtailment  of  an  expanding  work  of  wonderful 
grace,  presenting  urgent  opportunities  immensely 
outrunning  our  possibilities  of  supplying  workers 
and  the  means  to  support  them. 

Bangalore,  South  India,  December  9. 
We  had  arranged  plans  to  visit  Poona  and  Hy- 
derabad on  our  way  southward  from  Bombay  to 


FIFTEEN  HUNDRED  MILES  SOUTHWARD.  53 


this  place,  but  the  very  rapid  increase  of  the  plague 
at  Poona  had  led  the  government  to  prohibit  all 
visits  to  that  city,  and,  for  kindred  reasons,  we 
would  have  risked  a  two  weeks'  quarantine  at  Hy- 
derabad had  we  gone  there.  So  we  missed  these 
two  fine,  unique  old  capitals. 

We  were  examined  by  government  physicians 
seven  times  during  our  thirty-three  hours'  journey 
from  Bombay  here.  The  last  time,  at  the  station 
in  this  place,  our  names  and  local  addresses  were 
taken.  I  understand  a  doctor  is,  by  government 
order,  to  call  on  us  each  every  day,  to  be  sure  we 
continue  in  good  health.  At  one  place  where  we 
stopped  yesterday  all  third-class  passengers — that 
is,  all  natives — are  stopped  off  one  day.  They  are 
bathed  and  every  thread  of  their  clothing  is  boiled 
in  an  immense  steam  boiler. 

There  is  and  has  been  no  plague  in  this  region, 
nor  anywhere  in  the  regions  we  are  to  visit  after 
this.  I  have  no  fears  of  it ;  there  have  been  so  very 
few  Europeans  attacked  by  it,  even  where  it  is 
worst. 

December  12. 

The  weather  here  is  perfect,  brilliant,  dry,  and 
the  air  brimful  of  light,  with  a  full  moon  at  night ; 
the  clouds  at  night  are  the  most  brilliant  moonlit 
clouds  I  have  ever  seen.  It  is  cool  enough  for  a 
winter  coat  mornings  and  evenings,  and  for  a  sum- 
mer coat  in  the  afternoon. 

I  am  holding  the  South  India  Conference  here 
alone,  Bishop  Thoburn  having  been  detained  at 


54        FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


Bombay  with  a  cold — not  a  prostrating  one,  but 
such  that  both  he  and  his  wife  thought  he  would 
probably  be  quarantined  on  the  way  here  if  he 
should  attempt  the  trip.  He  writes  he  is  better, 
and  expects  to  meet  us  in  Calcutta, 

The  work  of  the  Conference  is  very  easy  and 
pleasant.  It  is  very  different  from  the  home  Con- 
ferences in  some  respects.  Women  are  here  in  num- 
bers almost  equal  to  those  of  the  missionaries  and 
native  teachers  ;  for  the  wives  of  missionaries  as  well 
as  teachers  sent  out  by  the  Woman's  Foreign  Mis- 
sionary Society  are  in  attendance,  and  are  mem- 
bers of  the  "  Woman's  Conference,"  which  meets 
every  afternoon.  I  visited  this  Conference  the  first 
day,  made  a  brief  address,  and  read  a  letter  of  greet- 
ing from  the  Philadelphia  branch,  with  which  the 
ladies  were  greatly  pleased  and  deeply  affected. 

Madras,  December  16. 
Since  leaving  Bangalore  we  have  had  a  pretty 
hard  time  of  it.  We  took  the  cars  for  a  forty-mile 
trip  to  Bowringpet,  reaching  there  at  eleven  o'clock 
at  night.  We  spent  the  night  in  a  missionary's 
home,  spreading  out  all  our  own  bedding  on  bare 
cots.  We  are  really  becoming  quite  expert  in  bed 
making.  After  cJwta  Jiasiri  in  the  morning  we 
drove  eleven  miles  in  one  hour  and  a  half  to  Kolar, 
over  a  very  fine  road  lined  most  of  the  way  by 
beautiful  banyan  and  tamarind  trees.  At  Kolar 
there  is  a  very  famous,  curious,  and  elaborately 
carved  Hindu  temple.    It  is  covered  with  elephants 


FIFTEEN  HUNDRED  MILES  SOUTHWARD. 


55 


and  the  most  grotesque  figures  of  human  beings  and 
animals.  We  have  there  a  large  orphanage  for 
boys  and  girls,  and  extensive  missionary  work  in 
little  villages  round  about.  Our  "  compound  " 
covers  twenty  acres,  with  spacious  buildings  for 
schools,  orphanages,  and  the  missionaries'  homes, 
with  fine  gardens  and  hay  fields.  Our  journey  back 
to  Bowringpet  in  the  early  evening  was  made  nearly 
three  hours  long  by  a  balky  horse.  These  little 
Indian  ponies  seem  each  to  have  a  mind  of  his  own. 

For  a  day  or  two  the  sun  has  been  shaded  most 
of  the  time  ;  this  change  after  the  constantly  pier- 
cing sunshine  in  India  is  very  refreshing ;  and  now 
we  are  having  a  heavy  rain,  the  first  we  have  had 
since  we  left  Italy.  It  is  most  welcome,  and  will 
probably  prevent  further  famine. 

Our  missionary  friends  in  India  are  exceedingly 
hospitable  to  Dr.  Goucher  and  myself  in  giving  us 
most  cordial  welcome  to  their  plain  but  spacious 
and  comfortable  bungalows,  and  also  in  providing 
us  perpetual  opportunities  for  thorough  inspection 
of  our  buildings  and  work,  and  for  speeches  innu- 
merable. 

After  leaving  Bowringpet — near  midnight — we 
made  up  our  own  "  beds  "  (which  we  carry  with  us 
everywhere)  in  an  odd-looking  little  railway  "  car- 
riage "  (there  are  no  "cars  "  here),  and  passed  a 
night  which  was  uncomfortably  shortened  at  both 
ends.  At  4  A.  M.  we  were  aroused  near  Madras 
for  our  thirty-first  "  medical  examination  "  in  India, 
on  suspicion  of  the  plague. 


56        FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

In  this  place  we  have  had  the  pleasure  of  meet- 
ing several  missionary  workers  representing  other 
Christian  Churches,  one  of  them  a  former  Yale 
student  who  is  now  the  Secretary  of  the  Students' 
Volunteer  Movement  for  India  and  Ceylon.  He  is 
a  very  bright  and  consecrated  young  man,  and  is 
doing  an  excellent  work.  We  have  met,  also,  the 
General  Secretary  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association  work  for  all  India,  who  was  formerly  in 
similar  work  in  Philadelphia,  and  also  a  mission- 
ary's wife  who  is  the  daughter  of  the  famous  Bap- 
tist missionary,  Rev.  Dr.  Clough,  of  Ongole,  who, 
in  the  year  1879,  after  marvelous  revival  influences 
in  that  region  for  many  months,  baptized  (by  im- 
mersion, of  course,  with  the  aid  of  other  ministers) 
2,222  heathen  converts  in  a  single  day. 

Our  bearded,  barefooted,  turbaned  "boys"  glide 
into  and  out  of  our  rooms — never  knocking — as 
silently  as  cats,  anticipating  all  our  wants.  I  have 
never  seen  better  servants. 


WOMAN'S  WORK  FOR  WOMAN. 


57 


CHAPTER  IX. 
Woman's  Work  for  Woman. 

ENGLAND  and  America  are  the  countries  of 
greatest  freedom  and  opportunity  for  women, 
and  tliis  last  quarter  of  the  century  may  be  called 
tJic  period  of  woman's  intellectual  development 
and  training  in  organized  activity.  These  state- 
ments seem  almost  truisms,  and  yet,  just  as  we 
only  question  for  a  day  such  marvels  as  the  X-rays, 
the  liquefaction  of  air,  or  telegraphing  without 
wires,  and  then  accept  them  as  inevitable  and  nat- 
ural factors  in  the  progress  of  the  world,  so  we 
seldom  stop  to  realize  how  greatly  and  significantly 
the  lives  of  the  women  of  to-day  differ  from  the 
lives  of  those  of  the  last  generation.  If  one  thinks 
of  the  women's  colleges,  the  women's  organizations, 
religious,  sociological,  civic,  and  political,  the 
women  entering  the  learned  professions  and  occu- 
pations of  many  kinds,  one  realizes  how  wide  has  be- 
come their  realization  of  their  powers,  their  oppor- 
tunities, and  their  responsibilities. 

Increasing  knowledge  of  the  condition  of  women 
in  all  non-Christian  lands  ;  recognition  of  how  great 
is  the  debt  of  English  and  American  women  to 
Christianity ;  the  great  devotion  women  always 
show  in  religious  matters;  the  special  sympathy 
and  interest  felt  by  Christian  women  for  all  less 


58        FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


favored  members  of  their  own  sex — these  are  some 
of  the  reasons  why  Enghsh  and  American  women 
have  banded  themselves  in  missionary  organiza- 
tions, until  now,  in  the  United  States  alone,  there 
are  probably  four  hundred  thousand  members  of 
such  societies. 

In  no  country  do  the  women  more  need  help 
than  in  India,  and  particularly  help  given  hy  zvoinen, 
not  men.  The  roots  of  the  evils  in  the  condition 
of  women  in  India  may  be  found  in  their  seclusion 
and  in  the  Hindu  social  customs  and  teachings 
concerning  women.  Most  of  these  evils  were  not 
originally  a  part  of  the  religion  and  customs  of 
the  Aryan  inhabitants  in  India.  The  seclusion  of 
women  in  zenanas  was  undoubtedly  largely  the  re- 
sult of  the  Mohammedan  invasion  and  conquest, 
for  it  was  the  custom  of  the  Mohammedans  to 
seclude  their  own  women  ;  and,  furthermore,  the 
women  of  India  were  not  safe  from  the  lust  of  the 
Mohammedan  conquerors  without  such  seclusion. 
The  effects  on  the  women  were  inevitable — phys- 
ical ills  of  all  sorts,  because  of  the  inactive  life  ;  low 
intellectual  condition,  they  being  taught  practically 
nothing,  and  having  nothing  in  their  environment 
of  which  to  think,  except  an  unvarying  round  of 
petty  duties;  a  spiritual  life  which  consists  in  the 
terrified  worship  of  cruel  and  impure  gods,  and  fur- 
nishes no  food  for  thought,  yet  to  which  they  cling 
with  a  devotion  deserving  a  better  object.  The 
most  infamous  of  the  religious  teachings  are  not 
contained  in  the  older  Brahmanistic  writers.  They 


WOMAN'S  WORK  FOR  WOMAN. 


59 


are  the  comparatively  recent  additions  of  Hindu- 
ism, though  hitcr  Hindu  writers  tried  to  read  such 
meanings  into  passages  from  the  older  sacred  books. 
This  is  true  of  sjittceism,  prohibition  of  widow 
marriage  and  the  cruel  treatment  of  widows,  female 
infanticide,  child  marriage,  polygamy,  joint  family 
life,  and  the  teacliing  that  marriage  is  necessary  to 
secure  the  immortality  of  a  woman's  soul.  In  the 
Institutions  of  Mann  can  be  found  such  passages 
as  these  :  "  In  childhood  a  female  must  be  subject 
to  her  father  ;  in  youth,  to  her  husband ;  when  her 
lord  is  dead,  to  her  sons.  A  woman  must  never  be 
independent."  "  Though  destitute  of  virtue,  or 
seeking  pleasure,  or  devoid  of  good  qualities,  yet 
the  husband  must  be  constantly  worshiped  as  a 
god  by  a  faithful  wife.  No  sacrifice,  no  good,  no 
fast,  must  be  performed  by  a  woman  apart  from 
her  husband,  for  if  a  woman  obeys  her  husband 
she  will  for  this  reason  alone  be  exalted  in  heaven." 
To  England  is  due  the  abolition  of  female  infanti- 
cide and  stittcc  (the  voluntary  burning  of  a  wife  on 
her  husband's  funeral  pile).  But  it  is  still  true  that 
a  widow  is  the  household  drudge,  and  leads  an  ex- 
istence so  dreary  that  it  does  not  deserve  to  be 
called  life ;  that  many  girls  are  married  and  some 
are  widows  when  between  six  and  ten  years  of  age  ; 
that  many  men  have  numerous  wives  and  more 
concubines  ;  that  women  are  taught  little  except 
the  preparation  of  food,  the  forms  of  worship,  and 
the  belief  that  woman  is  a  low  and  essentially 
worthless  creature,  whose  whole  duty  is  obedience 


60       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


and  whose  only  hope  in  this  world  and  the  next  is 
her  husband  ;  that  her  physical  ills  are  as  poorly 
cared  for  as  her  mental  and  moral ;  and  that  sev- 
eral generations  of  the  family  live  together,  the 
daughter-in-law  being  most  oppressively  subject  to 
her  mother-in-law.  These  conditions  vary  greatly 
in  different  parts  of  India  and  in  different  castes. 
Some  high-caste  husbands  truly  love  their  wives 
and  daughters,  care  for  them  tenderly,  and  teach 
them  to  read  or  permit  them  to  be  taught.  Some 
families  are  encouraging  widow  marriage.  Among 
the  lower  castes  the  customs  of  seclusion  and  polyg- 
amy do  not  prevail,  doubtless  partly  because  of  the 
poverty,  which  makes  it  necessary  for  the  women 
to  go  out  and  work,  and  forbids  the  men  the  ex- 
pense of  supporting  several  wives. 

Early  in  this  century  David  Abeel,  a  missionary 
of  the  American  Board,  became  convinced  that 
women  workers  were  necessary  to  reach  heathen 
women.  Accordingly,  in  1834,  on  his  way  home 
from  China,  he  stopped  in  England,  and  gave  to 
English  women  the  most  vivid  picture  they  had 
ever  had  of  the  condition  of  the  women  of  India 
and  China.  Up  to  that  time  missionary  work  had 
been  done  by  men,  with  such  assistance  as  their 
wives  could  find  time  to  give  them.  In  explaining 
the  founding  of  the  Women's  Boards,  Dr.  Pierson 
says :  "  The  one  origin  of  all  these  societies  was  the 
inaccessibility  of  heathen  women  to  male  mission- 
aries." In  England  David  Abeel's  plea  resulted 
in  the  formation  of  the  Society  for  Promoting 


WOMAN'S  WORK  FOR  WOMAN. 


61 


Female  Education  in  the  East,  which  in  1835  sent 
Miss  Wakefield  to  Calcutta.  Several  other  socie- 
ties were  formed  in  England  and  Scotland  before 
American  women  followed  their  lead,  although 
there  had  been  in  this  country,  during  the  whole 
century,  numerous  women's  auxiliaries,  which 
raised  money  for  the  church  boards.  In  t86i,  in 
New  York  city,  women  belonging  to  six  different 
denominations  founded  the  Union  Missionary  So- 
ciety, under  the  leadership  of  Mrs.  Doremus.  A 
few  years  later,  when  the  civil  war  was  over, 
American  women  found  themselves  free  for  greater 
interest  in  and  labor  for  missions  than  ever  before, 
and  with  the  added  training  which  they  had  gained 
from  their  organizations  to  furnish  relief  to  the 
army  during  the  war.  Then  there  sprang  up  rap- 
idly in  the  different  Churches  the  women's  boards, 
which  are  still  and  increasingly  carrying  on  the 
work. 

They  all  follow  very  similar  lines,  which  may  be 
in  general  stated  as  educational,  medical,  and 
evangelistic ;  but  these  divisions  overlap  almost 
invariably.  Perhaps  the  most  characteristic  work 
in  India  is  in  the  zenanas,  where  the  missionary 
gains  access  on  the  plea  of  teaching  first  em- 
broidery, then  reading,  always  using  the  Bible  as 
a  text-book.  The  women  learn  to  look  forward 
eagerly  to  her  visits,  because  of  her  interest  in 
them,  and  because  of  the  glimpses  she  brings  of  a 
new  and  fascinating  outside  world.  Little  by  little 
she  manages  to  tell  them  of  Jesus,  until  often  they 


62       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

become  Christians,  either  secretly  or  openly.  It  was 
the  ability  of  the  missionary  to  teach  needle-work 
which  opened  the  first  zenana — the  royal  household 
of  Siam — to  an  English  woman  in  1851,  and  one  in 
Calcutta  in  1855. 

In  the  boarding  schools  there  are  many  Chris- 
tian girls,  but  also  many  heathen,  who  can  hardly 
be  kept  long  enough  to  learn  anything,  because 
they  must  marry  so  young,  and  go  to  their  hus- 
bands' homes.  To  the  day  schools  many  wealthy 
Hindus  and  Mohammedans  are  now  sending  their 
daughters,  as  they  are  becoming  anxious  to  give 
them  an  education.  An  important  factor  in  the 
school  work  are  the  Eurasian  girls — those  with  na- 
tive mothers  and  English  fathers.  They  have  fur- 
nished the  greatest  numbers  in  the  colleges  and 
medical  schools  which  are  being  successfully  car- 
ried on,  but  even  in  these  institutions  of  higher 
education  there  are  some  heathen  girls.  The  Eng- 
lish government  so  much  appreciates  the  value  of 
the  school  work  that  it  appropriates  considerable 
sums  toward  the  support  of  many  institutions 
owned  by  American  societies.  The  mother  hearts 
of  Christian  women  have  taken  in  the  waifs  and 
orphans  of  India,  and  orphanages  have  been  built, 
which  are  filled  with  the  children  of  the  poor,  many 
of  them  the  famine  waifs  recently  gathered  in. 

No  better  means  of  gaining  listeners  for  the  Gos- 
pel has  been  found  than  the  medical  work,  which 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  had  the  honor 
of  beginning  by  sending  to  Bareilly,  in  1870,  Dr. 


WOMAN'S  WORK  FOR  WOMAN. 


63 


Clara  A.  Swain  as  the  first  woman  medical  mis- 
sionary. In  1889  the  Countess  of  Dufiferin  led  in 
England  in  the  formation  of  the  Association  for 
Supplying  Female  Medical  Aid  to  the  Women 
of  India.  Now  almost  all  the  boards  support 
women  medical  missionaries  ;  yet  among  American 
societies  ours  still  stands  first  in  this  work.  Its 
peculiar  value  in  India  can  be  easily  seen  by 
calling-  to  mind  the  fact  that  a  woman  there  can 
see  no  men  but  those  of  her  immediate  family, 
and  therefore  can  be  attended  by  no  male  physician, 
however  ill  she  may  be.  Such  treatment  as  she 
receives  from  the  native  midwives  is  barbarous  in 
the  extreme.  The  medical  missionaries  are  wel- 
comed where  no  other  missionary  could  gain  an 
entrance.  The  accounts  of  the  way  in  which  they 
have  been  sent  for  from  great  distances  to  attend 
high-caste  and  noble  women,  treated  like  queens, 
and  presented  with  magnificent  gifts,  sometimes 
even  grounds  and  buildings  for  hospitals,  is  as  in- 
teresting as  a  thrilling  novel.  Almost  every  phy- 
sician divides  her  time  between  working  in  her 
hospital  and  dispensary  and  visiting  the  sick  in 
zenanas — often,  too,  being  forced  to  be  chemist  and 
nurse,  as  well  as  physician,  surgeon,  and  missionary. 
No  part  of  the  medical  work  appeals  more  deeply 
to  our  sympathies  than  that  among  the  lepers. 
A  number  of  hospitals  have  been  erected,  where 
the  lives  of  those  poor  creatures  are  made  as  com- 
fortable as  possible. 

In  their  distinctively  evangelistic  work  the  women 

5 


64       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THF  EQUATOR. 


use  the  means  necessary  to  reach  all  classes  of 
society.  They  go  to  the  heathen  melas,  set  up 
booths  and  there  sing,  and  then  talk  to  any  of  the 
people  who  have  stopped  to  listen.  They  carry  on 
inohiilla,  or,  as  we  would  say,  slum  work,  in  the 
cities,  and  try  to  impress  even  the  lowest  of  the 
low  with  a  vision  of  Hope,  which  is  so  foreign  to 
the  apathetic  and  fatalistic  Hindu.  They  are  ver- 
itable "  circuit  riders,"  traveling  from  village  to 
village,  and,  like  our  Lord,  stopping  to  talk  with 
a  woman  at  a  well,  or  any  woman  anywhere.  Very 
important  are  the  Bible  women,  native  Christians 
who  have  caught  the  Christian  spirit,  and  learned 
enough  of  Christian  doctrine  to  enable  them  to 
give  their  time  to  aiding  the  pastors  in  the  work  of 
instructing  the  recently  converted  and  gaining 
more  converts  wherever  they  can.  Our  Church 
supports  the  greatest  number  of  Bible  women. 
Then  there  are  numerous  other  phases  of  woman's 
work  for  woman — the  Home  for  Homeless  Women, 
the  outcasts  of  India  society  ;  the  homes  for  wid- 
ows, among  them  those  founded  by  Pundita  Ramd- 
bai,  herself  a  widow,  who  began  her  work  in  1889; 
Deaconess  Homes,  Women's  Christian  Temperance 
Unions,  bands  of  King's  Daughters,  and  Women's 
Christian  Associations  ;  surely  a  great  many  differ- 
ent  paths,  all  leading  toward  the  kingdom  of 
heaven. 


THE  WOMAN'S  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY.  65 


CHAPTER  X. 


The  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society.* 

'HE  work  of  this  society,  which  is  of  high  im- 


1  portance  in  all  our  foreign  missions,  is  abso- 
lutely indispensable  in  a  land  like  India,  where,  to  so 
large  an  extent,  only  women  can  be  the  saviours  of 
women.  About  one  half  of  the  entire  work  of  this 
society  is  in  India  and  Malaysia.  No  wonder  that 
the  simple,  awful,  continent-large  facts  concerning 
the  deep  degradation  of  women  in  India ;  concern- 
ing the  unimaginable  ignorance  and  the  nameless 
horrors  of  the  harem  and  of  the  zenana ;  concern- 
ing child  marriages,  which  are  often  contracted 
between  the  ages  of  six  and  ten  years,  and  some- 
times even  in  infancy;  concerning  millions  of  child 
widows,  multitudes  of  whom  were  only  betrothed 
but  now  never  can  be  married,  and  are  doomed  as 
the  bond  slaves  of  their  fathers-in-law  and  their 
mothers-in-law  to  lives  without  one  ray  of  hope — 
have  effectually  taken  hold  of  the  heart  and  con- 
science of  that  sex  which  constitutes  three  fifths  of 
the  membership  of  the  Christian  Church,  and  whose 
representatives  were  the  intensest  lovers  of  the 
divine  man — "  last  at  the  cross,  and  earliest  at  the 
grave." 


*  I  do  not  here  attempt  nny  full  outline  of  the  various  kinds  of  work  done  by 
this  society,  but  only  a  brief  sketch  of  its  origin  and  the  statement  of  some  facts 
illustrative  of  certain  forms  of  its  beneficent  activity. 


66       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


Origin. 

It  is  not  always  possible  to  trace  a  great  idea  or 
organization  back  to  its  real  genesis  ;  yet,  doubtless, 
such  a  genesis  is  like  that  of  this  globe,  "  without 
form  and  void,"  until  God  says,  "  Let  there  be  light," 

The  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  our 
Church  certainly  had  its  origin  in  the  need  of  India 
as  that  need  was  apprehended  in  the  sagacious 
minds  and  consecrated  hearts  of  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
William  Butler,  and  Dr.  and  Mrs.  E.  W.  Parker. 
The  society  was  organized  in  the  Tremont  Street 
Church,  Boston,  Mass.,  March  23,  1869,  as  the 
direct  result  of  the  fervent  appeals  of  these  devoted 
missionaries ;  the  day  being  so  stormy  that  only 
eight  women  were  present,  including  Mrs.  Butler 
and  Mrs.  Parker.  On  the  twentieth  anniversary 
of  that  humble  beginning  there  was  unveiled  in  that 
church  a  fine  memorial  window  of  most  fit  and 
elaborate  design  bearing  this  inscription,  "  The 
Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church  was  organized  in  this  build- 
ing March  23,  1869,"  and  also  the  names  of  the 
eight  founders,  all  of  whom  were  present  at  the 
unveiling  excepting  Mrs.  Parker,  who  was  at  her 
post  of  duty  in  India.  Mrs.  Daniel  Steele  read  a 
poem,  of  which  the  following  are  the  closing  lines: 

"  From  every  land  and  people, 

From  every  tribe  and  tongue, 
Shall  silvery  treble  voices 

Join  the  triumphant  song. 
They  who,  from  darkest  midnight, 

Bowed  down  with  sin  and  shame, 


THE  WOMAN'S  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY.  67 


Lifted  by  these  and  rescued, 

Have  trusted  Jesus'  name. 
Such,  our  beloved  sisters, 

Shall  your  memorial  be, 
Its  splendors  multiplying 

To  all  eternity." 

Ill  the  closing  address  of  the  service  Dr.  Butler 
described  a  "glorious  vision  "  which  he  saw  while 
resting  on  the  empty  crystal  throne  of  the  famous 
palace  in  Delhi  on  Dcceinbcr  20,  1857,  when  the 
last  of  the  Mogul  emperors  was  being  tried  for  the 
murder  of  Christians.  He  then  and  there  had  vivid 
suggestions  in  his  mind,  not  only  of  an  orphanage 
for  the  starving  little  children  of  India,  but  also  of 
a  woinan's  missionary  society  in  America  to  send 
help  for  such  orphans  and  to  carry  the  Gospel  into 
the  zenanas. 

Bareilly  Orphanage. 

The  founding  of  an  orphanage  was  one  of  the 
first  enterprises  of  Methodist  missions  in  India.  In 
November,  1858,  when  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Butler  had 
been  in  that  country  only  two  years,  they  took  in 
one  feeble  little  girl,  blind  in  one  eye.  Within  two 
years  more  they  had  received  thirteen  orphans. 
Then,  when  the  British  government  was  instituting 
means  for  the  temporary  care  of  famine  orphans, 
Dr.  Butler,  foreseeing  the  lives  of  shame  to  which 
such  waifs  were  doomed,  proposed  the  bold  project 
of  providing  for  one  hundred  and  fifty  girls  and  one 
hundred  boys,  while  as  yet  he  had  no  means  for 
their  shelter  or  support.    They  were  quickly  set 


68       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


down  at  his  door,  in  i860,  in  bullock  cart  loads  of 
fifteen  or  twenty  each,  most  of  them  half  starved, 
and  fifteen  of  them  too  far  gone  to  be  saved.  This 
greatly  enlarged  work  began  in  Lucknow,  but  was 
removed  in  1862  to  Bareilly,  to  a  site  hallowed  by 
the  blood  of  Maria  Boist,  a  Eurasian,  the  first 
Methodist  martyr  in  India.  When  the  mutiny 
broke  out,  her  flight  was  intercepted  by  a  soldier 
who  cut  off  her  head.  Her  body  was  buried  under  a 
rose  tree  in  the  garden,  and  there  stands  our  orphan- 
age to-day,  her  fitting  monument,  one  of  the  largest 
and  most  successful  institutions  of  its  kind  under 
our  care  in  any  land.  When  I  visited  it  in  Novem- 
ber, 1897,  it  was  caring  for  351  children,  of  whom 
about  150  were  "famine  waifs,"  and  32  of  such 
"  waifs  "  died  of  starvation  after  they  were  received, 
being  too  far  gone  to  be  nourished  by  any  kind 
of  food.  At  the  Conference  in  Bareilly  the  fol- 
lowing January  I  had  the  great  pleasure  of  assist- 
ing in  the  baptism  of  123  little  children  of  this  or- 
phanage, nearly  all  of  whom  were  one  year  before  in 
the  jaws  of  famine  and  of  heathenism. 

I  inspected  the  arrangements  of  this  orphanage 
with  care,  and  with  the  highest  satisfaction.  It 
seems  to  me  a  preeminent  illustration  of  that  "  sanc- 
tified common  sense  "  which  characterizes  in  a  good 
degree  the  work  of  the  Woman's  Foreign  Mission- 
ary Society,  alike  in  its  home  activities  of  inspira- 
tion, money  raising,  and  supervision,  and  in  its 
diversified  foreign  enterprises  of  rescue,  conversion, 
education,  training,  and  general  uplifting  ;  as  I  have 


THE  WOMAN'S  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY.  69 

Studied  them  in  Mexico,  Europe,  Japan,  Malaysia, 
and  India.  Its  arrangements  are  studiously  adapted 
to  prepare  the  girls  for  hfe,  as  they  will  meet  its 
problems.  The  cheap,  plain,  one-story  buildings  in 
which  they  live,  while  furnishing  the  very  best  sani- 
tary arrangements  and  vastly  more  comfortable  than 
the  homes  from  which  most  of  the  children  have 
come,  will  not  unfit  them  for  those  to  which  many 
of  them  will  return.  I  saw  the  girls  grinding  wheat 
sitting  on  the  floor,  working  little  stone  mills  two  by 
two,  such  as  were  in  use  when  the  Saviour  said, 
"  Two  women  shall  be  grinding  at  the  mill ;  "  mix- 
ing and  baking  their  chapatis,  cooking  the  rice,  and 
doing  almost  all  the  work  which  girls  can  do  in  the 
orphanage. 

PllCEBE  ROWE. 
One  of  the  surest  and  readiest  tests  of  the  real 
character  of  any  movement  may  be  found  in  its 
reflex  effect  on  its  promoters.  While  in  India,  in 
observing  with  care  the  workers  in  the  field,  the 
spirit  they  manifested,  the  service  they  rendered,  I 
must  now  say  I  was  able  to  add  with  clear  convic- 
tion many  names  to  my  Eleventh  of  Hebrews,  my 
personal  roster  of  the  saints  and  heroes  of  the  faith. 
One  of  these  whom  I  feel  free  to  mention  because 
she  has  since  gone  to  receive  her  crown,  was  St. 
Phoebe,  surnamed  Rowe.  Her  father  was  an  Eng- 
lish gentleman,  and  her  mother  a  Hindu.  She 
was  early  converted,  and  came  to  Miss  Isabella 
Thoburn's  school  in  Lucknow,  where,  before  she 
was  twenty  years  of  age,  all  the  girls  were  converted 


70       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


through  her  untiring  efforts.  She  was  then  thrust 
forth  into  a  really  unique  career  as  a  soul-saver. 
For  twenty-five  years  she  went  everywhere  in  north- 
ern India  as  a  flaming  torch.  She  was  unequaled 
in  the  versatility  of  her  work  as  a  teacher,  school 
superintendent,  assistant  missionary,  deaconess, 
zenana  worker,  and  evangelist.  In  this  last- 
named  work  she  was  preeminent.  Her  track  was  a 
constant  triumph.  She  went  from  village  to  village 
visiting  heathen  fairs,  speaking  from  the  steps  of 
temples,  gathering  the  people  in  huts,  under  trees, 
by  the  wayside,  in  city  streets,  anywhere,  and  with 
amazing  persuasiveness  told  the  glad  tidings.  Mul- 
titudes were  converted,  and  "  she  probably  did 
more  than  any  other  one  person  in  India  to  lift  up 
the  common  village  Christian  in  religious  living." 

I  had  seen  her  and  heard  her  pathetic  singing 
in  America,  and  hoped  to  meet  her  at  the  Hathras 
Camp  Meeting  and  at  the  Northwest  India  Con- 
ference ;  but  she  sent  her  affectionate  greetings,  with 
her  message  that  she  could  not  forsake  her  much 
loved  work.  On  April  13,  the  very  day  I  reached 
my  home,  she  was  welcomed  to  her  eternal  home, 
where  if  there  "  is  joy  over  one  sinner  that  repent- 
eth  "  there  must  surely  have  been  high  festival  that 
day  on  the  arrival  of  a  winner  of  so  many  souls. 

Of  course  I  observed  the  work  of  the  Woman's 
Foreign  Missionary  Society  in  many  places  of  which 
I  cannot  now  speak.  Glances  at  its  work  in  one 
more  city  must  suffice.  We  had  two  red-letter  days 
far  away  in  South  India. 


THE  WOMAN'S  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY.  71 


Madras  ORriiANAGE. 
Having  been  a  sincere  admirer  and  true  lover  of 
the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society  from  its 
earliest  infancy,  I  knew  very  well  before  I  went  to 
India  that  these  sentiments  would  be  intensified 
when  I  should  observe  its  work  in  that  vast  empire  ; 
and  so  they  were.  It  would  delight  the  heart  of 
any  American  Christian  woman  to  see  the  work  in 
Madras. 

Miss  Grace  Stephens,  who  has  charge  of  the 
work,  is,  by  divine  right  and  glad  human  consent, 
undisputed  queen  in  her  realm,  which  includes  an 
orphanage,  six  schools,  and  an  extensive  zenana 
visitation.  On  our  first  morning  in  Madras  she 
invited  Dr.  Goucher  and  myself  to  her  too  crowded 
home  to  meet  her  fellow-workers  and  a  few  schol- 
ars from  each  of  the  schools.  We  had  had  but 
slight  snatches  of  sleep,  having  taken  a  midnight 
train  only  to  be  waked  up  at  4  A.  M.  for  our  thirty- 
third  "  medical  examination"  on  suspicion  of  the 
plague. 

On  our  early  arrival  we  were  met  at  the  station 
by  a  number  of  our  missionaries  and  welcomed  to 
the  delightful  hospitality  of  the  home  of  Rev.  Dr. 
and  Mrs.  A.  W.  Rudisill.  First,  at  7  A.  M.,  as  all 
well  regulated  foreign  residents  and  tourists  in 
India  do,  we  partook  of  cJiota  Jiaziri — tea,  with 
toast  and  a  little  fruit.  Then  we  tried  to  recover 
some  of  our  lost  sleep.  In  the  midst  of  that  laud- 
able endeavor  Miss  Stephens's  note  of  invitation 
was  handed  in.    Of  course  we  went. 


72        FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR, 


She  had  brought  together  the  teachers  from  her 
six  schools  and  a  few  scholars  from  each,  and  in 
two  hours  she  gave  us,  in  great  variety,  specimens 
of  their  surprising  proficiency.  There  were  chil- 
dren from  the  ranks  of  the  poorest  of  the  poor,  and 
large  classes  of  high-caste  girls. 

The  singing  would  have  pleased  Mr.  Wesley,  for 
all  sang  "lustily."  Possibly  the  language  requires 
peculiar  movements  of  the  vocal  organs,  but  I 
never  saw  children  open  their  mouths  so  wide  or 
work  their  tongues  up  and  down  so  like  clappers. 

"  Lady  Henry  Somerset "  was  there — a  very 
dark-skinned  child  with  gleaming  black  eyes,  five 
years  old.  When  she  first  came  in,  at  the  age  of 
three  and  a  half,  she  missed  her  gods,  and  for  some 
time  inquired  for  them  and  wished  to  offer  them  a 
portion  of  her  food  ;  but  at  length  she  came  to  like 
Jesus  better  than  her  gods  because  he  does  not 
require  any  of  her  rice. 

In  that  humble  missionary  home  we  saw  forty 
dusky  little  maidens  of  the  higher  castes  of  that 
city,  sent  at  good  prices  for  tuition  to  this  school, 
because  it  is  the  best  school  to  be  found  in  Madras; 
and  those  little  maidens  were  dressed  in  the  finest 
silks  that  India  could  produce  ;  and  jewels — they 
had  jewels  in  the  tops  of  their  ears  and  in  the  bot- 
toms of  their  ears ;  they  had  them  in  their  noses ; 
they  had  them  on  all  the  joints  of  their  fingers  and 
even  on  their  thumbs,  on  their  wrists  and  on  their 
elbows  and  on  their  ankles  and  on  their  toes,  so 
that  they  fairly  jingled  with  jewels  whenever  they 


THE  WOMAN'S  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY.  73 


Stirred  ;  and  they  stirred  a  great  deal,  because  they 
went  through  some  very  striking  cahsthenics  and 
some  very  Hvcly  singing.  Beside  these,  and  some- 
what younger,  were  perhaps  twenty  httle  girls 
without  a  jewel,  in  the  plainest  clothing — waifs  of 
society,  picked  up  by  the  saints  of  the  living  God, 
out  of  the  dust  of  heathenism  and  out  of  the  deep- 
est poverty — trained  in  the  orphanage  and  brought 
to  the  knowledge  of  the  blessed  Christ. 

The  central  figure  in  that  company — no,  I  must 
not  finish  that  sentence ;  we  knew  the  unseen 
Christ  was  there,  for  "  did  not  our  hearts  burn 
within  us?"  The  central  z/w/M' figure  was  Sooboo- 
nagam  Ammal,  a  very  rich,  high-caste  Brahman 
woman  whom  woman's  truest  Friend  and  Lover 
had  captured,  won,  transformed,  and  glorified  ;  she 
had  been  taught  of  Jesus  in  the  zenana,  until  she 
wanted  to  come  to  him  ;  but  how  could  she  break 
away,  and  have  her  death  celebrated  by  her  friends 
(as  it  was  celebrated  afterward)?  But  three  years 
ago  she  came  to  Miss  Stephens,  on  Christmas  Day, 
cast  herself  down  at  her  feet,  and  said,  "  I  am  your 
Christmas  present;"  and  from  that  hour  she  had 
broken  utterly  away  from  all  her  old  connections. 
I  saw  her  again  and  again,  with  no  jewels,  going 
forth  daily  into  the  zenana,  and  to  the  scrubbing 
of  floors  and  the  humblest  of  work — a  true,  noble, 
consecrated  saint — bound  to  get  to  the  bottom  of 
society,  and  if  she  can,  also  to  the  top  of  it,  and  to 
be  a  faithful  missionary  among  her  own  people. 
Her  touching  story,  beautifully  written  by  Miss 


74       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


Stephens,  ought  to  be  published  in  every  land  and 
language. 

I  saw  also  a  zenana  woman  who,  until  that  day, 
had  never  seen  the  face  of  a  white  man — had  seen 
no  man's  face  near  at  hand  excepting  the  face  of 
her  husband  and  sons  and  of  the  servants  about  her 
house  ;  but  having  been  converted  some  years  ago, 
in  a  quiet  way  in  the  zenana,  and  having  learned  to 
love  Jesus,  she  at  last  persuaded  her  husband  (hav- 
ing laid  by  all  her  jewels)  to  let  her  come  to  that 
house,  and  see  the  little  children,  and  hear  them 
sing,  and  see  these  American  strangers.  She  had 
holes  in  her  ears  almost  as  big  as  a  copper  cent — 
the  lower  lobe  being  as  large  as  the  upper,  to  hang 
large  jewels  there  to  please  the  eyes  of  her  husband 
and  her  sons.  She  sat  there  like  a  timid  fawn, 
hardly  daring  to  cast  her  eyes  around  ;  and  yet  she 
gathered  courage,  and  when  the  meeting  was  almost 
over,  with  sweet  voice  she  sang,  "  All  the  day  long 
it  is  Jesus." 

Near  the  close  of  the  exercises  two  dusky  and 
wondrously  bejeweled  little  maidens  hung  garlands 
around  our  necks,  gave  us  bouquets,  and  sprinkled 
us  with  rose  water  from  head  to  foot,  until  it  fairly 
dripped  from  us  and  made  us  think  of  "  Aaron's 
beard." 

.A  Great  "Tamasha." 

The  laying  of  the  foundation  stone  of  the  orphan- 
age on  the  following  day  was  the  greatest  mission- 
ary tamasha  (festival)  ever  witnessed  in  Madras. 


THE  WOMAN'S  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY.  75 


It  was  arranged  to  have  the  exercises  occupy  an 
hour  before  and  an  hour  after  nightfall.  Three 
of  the  principal  streets  of  the  city  approaching  the 
compound  were  decked  with  flags  for  half  a  mile 
each,  and  illuminated  at  night.  The  grounds  of 
the  orphanage  were  very  gaily  decorated,  and  as 
night  drew  on  were  brilliantly  illuminated  by  thou- 
sands of  lanterns,  hundreds  of  them  suspended  on 
two  bamboo  towers  fifty  or  sixty  feet  high.  We  met 
in  a  brilliantly  striped  pavilion  large  enough  to  hold 
two  thousand  persons  ;  it  was  trimmed  with  gay  tin- 
sel and  decorated  with  crystal  chandeliers  and  col- 
ored lights.  The  ground  was  covered  with  straw, 
and  this  with  bright  rugs;  the  seats  were  interspersed 
with  foliage  and  flowering  plants.  To  the  left  of 
the  platform  two  fifths  of  the  entire  space  was  par- 
titioned off  by  a  fine  bamboo  screen,  behind  which 
were  about  three  hundred  zenana  women,  clothed 
in  gorgeous  silks  and  decked  with  brilliant  jewels. 
There  were  rousing  songs  by  the  six  hundred  and 
fifty  Tamil  children,  hymns  by  the  adult  congrega- 
tion, addresses  by  Dr.  Goucher  and  myself.  Scripture 
readings,  and  prayer.  In  the  midst  of  these  exer- 
cises the  zenana  women  quietly  asked  to  have  the 
curtain  raised  a  few  inches.  How  their  eager  eyes 
shot  glances ! 

In  the  audience  there  were  many  Christians  of 
other  churches,  and  a  considerable  number  of  dis- 
tinguished native  gentlemen — Hindus  and  Mo- 
hammedans, judges,  professors,  barristers,  and 
merchants — all  of  whom  gave  intense  attention. 


76       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


They  were  presented  to  us  at  the  close,  and  ex- 
pressed great  interest  in  the  proceedings. 

The  pavilion  with  all  its  decorations,  and  the 
flags,  towers,  and  lights  had  been  provided  by  a 
native  heathen  gentleman,  because  he  had  come  to 
believe  that  this  school  work  which  these  blessed 
Christian  women  are  doing  is  philanthropic  and  ex- 
cellent work.  This  high  government  officer,  this 
solid  merchant  and  man  of  wealth,  did  all  this  with 
a  cheerful  heart,  as  a  kind  of  unconscious  testimony 
on  his  own  part  to  the  way  in  which  the  kings  of 
the  world  and  the  wealth  of  the  world  (when 
Isaiah's  splendid  visions  are  fulfilled)  are  to  be 
brought  and  laid  at  Jesus'  feet.  When  the  service 
ended,  our  benefactor,  Mr.  P.  Vcncatachellum,  who 
had  done  all  this  work  of  preparation,  including 
ample  refreshments,  leaving  Miss  Stephens  nothing 
in  the  way  of  expense  that  day  except  to  pay  for 
the  corner-stone  itself,  took  us  to  the  curtain  and 
introduced  us  to  his  wife,  who  shrank  and  drew 
back  as  though  from  pollution,  and  yet  did  touch 
the  white  man's  hand,  as  did  a  few  others  of  the 
women  there.  We  saw  the  bright-e)^ed,  saintly 
Sooboonagam  Ammal  moving  around  among  them, 
getting  the  frowns  of  some  and  the  indifferent 
greeting  of  others,  and  the  wondering  looks  of 
many.  They  knew  what  she  had  left,  and  only  a 
few  months  before  had  had  a  great  public  meeting 
for  the  reprehension  of  the  rich  woman  who  could 
break  her  caste  and  leave  her  friends  and  have  her 
funeral  publicly  celebrated  by  them  before  she  died. 


THE  WOMAN'S  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY.  77 


O  my  friends  !  do  not  such  facts  open  a  rift  into 
darkest  India  ? 

For  the  laying  of  the  stone  Dr.  Gouchcr  and  I 
were  provided  with  trowels  which  had  been  used  in 
repairing  one  of  the  most  famous  heathen  temples 
in  southern  India.  How  they  reached  Madras  I 
do  not  know,  but  they  will  probably  see  service  in 
America. 

When  the  stone  had  been  laid  the  orphanage 
children  marched  around  it,  and  around  us,  singing 
in  Tamil  a  song  of  welcome,  in  the  chorus  of 
which  we  could  discern,  "  Goucher,  Goucher,"  and 
"  Bishop,  Bishop."  Then  great  yokes  of  glittering 
tinsel  and  garlands  of  roses  were  hung  about  our 
necks,  and  we  were  again  showered  with  rose  water. 

This  was  not  the  dedication  of  a  new  building, 
but  the  laying  of  a  corner-stone  on  foundations 
level  with  the  ground.  Imagine  the  feelings  of 
Queen  Grace  when  a  cablegram  from  America  re- 
quired her  to  stop  the  work  for  lack  of  funds ! 
She  obeyed,  but — prayed  and  prayed,  and  talked 
and  smiled  and  prayed.  Of  course  her  prayer  was 
answered.  Dr.  Goucher  gave  her  a  Christmas 
present  of  $i,ooo  to  put  up  the  first  story,  and 
the  New  York  Branch  of  the  Woman's  Foreign 
Missionary  Society  has  undertaken  to  finish  the 
building,  and  has  named  it  the  "  Harriet  Bond 
Skidmore  Memorial,"  thus  worthily  perpetuating 
in  India  the  honored  name  of  the  veteran  secretary 
of  that  Branch. 

In  response  to  a  letter  from  Mrs.  E.  B.  Stevens, 


78       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


Corresponding  Secretary  of  the  Baltimore  Branch 
of  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society,  thank- 
ing him  for  his  generous  aid  on  this  occasion,  Mr. 
P.  Vencatachellum  wrote  as  follows :  "  I  am  much 
pleased  to  find  that  the  little  assistance  I  have  been 
in  position  to  render  to  the  good  work  Miss  Grace 
Stephens  is  carrying  on  in  Madras  among  my  fel- 
low-countrymen has  been  so  highly  appreciated  by 
you,  and  it  is  extremely  gratifying  to  find  that  the 
noble  work  is  so  heartily  followed  up  with  your 
good  wishes  and  praj'ers  and  efforts.  I  shall  always 
be  glad  to  hear  of  the  success  of  the  zenana  and 
orphanage  work  of  your  mission,  and  trust  that  my 
countrymen  and  countrywomen  will  gratefully  avail 
themselves  of  the  benefits  of  education,  both  tem- 
poral and  spiritual,  thus  brought  within  their  reach 
by  such  God-fearing  and  self-denying  agents  as 
Miss  Grace  Stephens  and  her  earnest  colaborers." 


i 


A  NEW  "KOH-I-NOOR. 


79 


CHAPTER  XI. 
A  New  ^'Koh-i-noof/' 

THE  costliest  jewel  in  the  world  is  the  Koh-i- 
noor  diamond,  which,  after  many  wanderings, 
has  found  its  fittest  resting  place  in  the  crown  of 
Queen  Victoria. 

Koh-i-noor  means  "  Mountain  of  Light,"  and  so 
may  fitly  describe  our  exceptionally  well-equipped 
publishing  house  in  Madras,  which  it  was  my  priv- 
ilege to  dedicate. 

The  really  wonderful  story  of  this  unique  poly- 
glot gospel  in  machinery  must  be  briefly  told. 

The  publishing  house  has  seven  distinct  depart- 
ments, furnished  with  the  latest  and  best  machin- 
ery, all  of  which  was  made  in  the  United  States. 
That  portion  belonging  to  the  printing  department 
executes  its  work  in  five  languages.  The  bindery 
has  eight  machines,  made  and  presented  by  Mr. 
Hazelton,  of  Warren  County,  Pa.  They  are  a 
combination  of  electrotyping  and  photo-engraving, 
and  the  first  ever  used  by  any  publishing  house, 
and  are  duplicates  of  the  only  other  set  in  exist- 
ence in  the  world.  Next  comes  the  electrotyping 
department,  then  the  photo-engraving  department, 
which  is  supplied  with  the  best  machinery.  This 
was  made  and  largely  donated  by  Mr.  William  Hol- 
lingsworth,  of  Baltimore,  Md.  The  booklet  de- 
partment already  has  orders  from  China  and  Japan. 
6 


80       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


The  stcrcopticon  department  is  complete.  The 
Ahiutt  Chapel  is  a  part  of  the  building,  upon  the 
top  of  which  is  a  screen  forty  feet  square  used  for 
the  purpose  of  illustrating  Scripture  truth  to  the 
people  as  they  pass  along  in  the  street. 

There  is  also  an  envelope  machine,  which  cuts, 
folds,  and  gums  envelopes  with  great  rapidity.  This 
great  establishment  finds  work  for  one  hundred 
employees,  and  is  supplied  with  electricity  for 
power  and  light.  Dr.  Rudisill's  time  is  largely  oc- 
cupied in  its  management.  He  is  a  practical  man, 
and  was  trained  in  five  different  manufacturing 
establishments  for  a  year,  so  that  he  could  intelli- 
gently superintend  the  complicated  work  for  which 
he  has  given  his  time  and  money.  No  one  can 
estimate  the  value  of  this  adjunct  to  the  mission- 
ary work  in  India.  Millions  of  pages  of  religious 
literature  in  various  languages  will  be  printed  in 
and  distributed  from  this  great  center  of  power. 

The  public  interest  taken  in  this  institution  is 
fairly  reflected  in  the  following  notice  of  the  open- 
ing exercises,  published  in  the  Madras  Times  the 
next  day  : 

"  Without  sound  of  drum  or  waving  of  flag,  the 
Methodists  have  planted  in  our  city  the  seed  of 
a  great  work,  the  first  of  its  kind  in  the  Indian 
empire,  whereby  the  combined  power  of  electricity 
and  steam  printing,  engraving,  photo-engraving, 
electrotyping,  binding,  and  other  work  of  the  most 
advanced  kind  can  be  turned  out.  Recently  the 
new  building,  which  is  situated  next  to  the  Eng- 


A  NEW  "KOH-I-NOOR. 


81 


lish  warehouse  on  the  Mount  Road,  was  dedicated 
and  formally  opened,  under  the  chairmanship  of 
Bishop  Foss,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 
There  was  a  short  dedication  service  in  the  Alnutt 
Chapel,  which  forms  a  portion  of  the  building.  A 
fine  collection  of  plants  decorated  the  platform,  on 
which  the  chairman  and  other  ministers  of  the  Meth- 
odist denomination  took  their  seats,  and  in  the 
midst  was  studded  with  electric  lights,  most  taste- 
fully arranged.  The  service  opened  with  the  sing- 
ing of  a  hymn  accompanied  by  a  pianoforte,  follow- 
ing which  portions  of  Scripture  were  read  in  turn 
by  the  several  ministers  who  were  on  the  platform. 

"  The  Rev.  Dr.  Rudisill  then  said  : 

"'Reverend  Bishop,  we  meet  this  morning  to 
dedicate  and  formally  open  the  Mrs.  Mary  M. 
Rudisill  Memorial  Publishing  House.  It  is  a  mat- 
ter of  congratulation  to  all  who  have  to  do  with 
the  publishing  house  that  so  distinguished  a  gen- 
eral superintendent  and  bishop  of  our  Church  as 
yourself  has  most  graciously  consented  to  preside 
and  perform  the  dedication  ceremony.  In  like 
manner  we  rejoice  in  the  Providence  that  has  fa- 
vored us  with  the  presence  of  one  whom  the  whole 
Church  recognizes  as  rich  in  gifts  and  grace,  the 
Rev.  John  F.  Goucher,  D.D.,  President  of  the 
Woman's  College  of  Baltimore,  U.  S.  A.,  who  will 
deliver  an  address,  and  then  with  his  own  hands 
let  in  the  misty  servants,  which  are  even  now  with 
eagerness  pressing  against  the  door  by  which  they 
will  enter  to  set  in  motion  all  the  machinery,  and 


82       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


also  to  liberate  myriads  of  fiery  painters  who  in 
coming  years  on  whited  walls  and  printed  pages 
will  bring  out  to  view  many  a  picture.  Reverend 
Rishop,  as  agent  of  this  publishing  house,  I  wish 
to  mention  one  name  which  above  all  others  must 
be  named  as  the  one  to  whom  honor  is  due  for  the 
existence  of  this  publishing  house.  Before  this 
name  all  other  names  fade  away,  undiscoverable. 
It  is  the  name  high  over  all  in  heaven  or  earth  or 
sky — the  name  of  Jesus.  To  him  forever  be  all  the 
glory.' 

"  The  dedication  address  was  delivered  by  Dr. 
Goucher,  of  America,  who  dwelt  at  some  length 
upon  the  nature  and  novelty  of  the  work  organized 
through  the  exertions  of  Dr.  Rudisill,  and  the 
great  boon  it  conferred  upon  India  by  affording 
facilities  for  printing  work  of  the  most  up-to-date 
kind  being  executed  on  the  spot  without  the  ne- 
cessity of  having  to  look  to  the  United  States  or 
Europe  for  its  accomplishment. 

"  Mr.  J.  H.  Stephens,  one  of  the  members  of  the 
Publishing  House  Committee  of  the  church,  ex- 
plained to  those  present  the  great  difficulties  which 
Dr.  Rudisill  had  had  to  encounter  in  bringing  about 
the  existence  of  the  new  work. 

"  The  Rev.  Mr.  Ward,  on  behalf  of  the  other 
Christian  denominations,  expressed  his  warm  ap- 
preciation of  the  work  undertaken  by  their  Metho- 
dist brethren,  which  he  was  sure  would  be  the 
means  of  spreading  the  Gospel  more  widely 
throughout  this  country. 


A  NEW  "  KOH-I-NOOR. 


83 


"  The  singing  of  another  hymn,  and  the  bene- 
diction pronounced  by  the  chairman,  brought  the 
dedication  to  a  close,  and  then  the  motive  power 
of  the  machinery  was  set  in  operation  by  Dr. 
Gouchcr,  and  the  pubUc  were  afforded  an  oppor- 
tunity of  viewing  the  works." 

The  deHbcrate  words  placed  in  the  first  pages  of 
the  visitors'  book  do  not  overstate  my  judgment 
and  that  of  the  very  careful  observer  who  turned 
on  the  steam  and  set  the  wheels  in  motion.  I 
wrote  thus : 

" '  Prayer  and  pains,  through  faith  in  Jesus 
Christ,  can  do  anything.'  This  saying  of  Eliot,  the 
heroic  apostle  to  the  American  Indians,  is  a  most 
inspiring  motto  for  Christian  workers.  It  finds 
fresh  illu-stration  in  the  planting  and  growth  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Publishing  House  in  Madras, 
the  history  of  which  reads  like  romance,  and  is 
a  veritable  record  of  romantic  faith  and  pluck, 
'  prayer  and  pains.'  We  find  here  wonderfully 
skillful  use  of  nature's  forces  and  of  machinery 
which  almost  seems  to  think,  under  the  direction 
of  consecrated  brains — all  combining  to  glorify 
nature's  Creator  and  man's  Redeemer." 

And  Dr.  Goucher  added  : 

"  I  have  examined  with  great  carefulness  and  de- 
tail the  Methodist  Episcopal  Publishing  House  in 
Madras,  and  have  found  the  machinery,  methods, 
and  workmanship  thoroughly  up  to  date.  In  its 
various  departments  of  printing,  binding,  electro- 
typing,  photo-engraving,  and  envelope  making,  it 


84       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


will  compare  favorably  with  similar  establishments 
in  America  and  Europe.  I  desire  to  express  my 
high  appreciation  of  the  executive  ability  and  tech- 
nical knowledge  of  the  agent,  Dr.  A.  W.  Rudisill, 
by  whose  untiring  energy  apparently  insurmount- 
able obstacles  have  been  overcome,  and  the  suc- 
cessful inauguration  of  this  great  enterprise  has 
been  made  possible  ;  and  of  the  skill  of  the  more 
than  one  hundred  native  employees  who  have  been 
taught  by  him,  as  well  as  of  the  comprehensive- 
ness and  quality  of  the  machinery.  I  believe  this 
establishment  will  have  large  ministry  in  feeding 
the  redeemed  millions  of  India  with  healthful, 
spiritual  literature." 

We  had  the  pleasure  of  witnessing  in  this  pub- 
lishing house  the  making  of  the  first  photograph 
by  electric  light  ever  taken  in  India  ;  it  consisted 
of  these  words,  "  I  am  the  Light  of  the  World." 
Glorious  augury ! 


FIFTEEN  HUNDRED  MILES  NORTHWARD.  85 


CHAPTER  XII. 

Fifteen  Hundred  Miles  Northward ;  from  Madras 
to  Calcutta  and  Lucknow. 

Calcutta,  December  30,  1897. 

AFTER  five  days  in  Madras,  crowded  full  of 
scenes  of  unique  interest,  we  took  the  steam- 
ship Paramiiiatta  for  this  city. 

Madras  has  no  natural  harbor,  but  a  great  break- 
water of  solid  masonry  has  been  built  at  vast  ex- 
pense to  make  an  artificial  roadstead ;  which,  how- 
ever, furnishes  such  insufficient  protection  against 
storms  from  the  southeast  that,  on  the  approach  of 
a  cyclone,  all  large  vessels  are  ordered  to  put  out  to 
sea.  Our  passage  out  through  the  narrow  gap  be- 
tween the  immense  arms  of  the  breakwater  was 
very  curious  and  interesting,  and  for  the  first  half 
hour  we  had  excellent  views  of  the  really  fine  archi- 
tecture of  the  city. 

Our  three  days'  voyage  on  the  Bay  of  Bengal 
was  entirely  placid  and  uneventful.  We  had  on 
board  a  bride  who  had  come  from  London — a  five 
weeks'  voyage — and  who  arrived  in  Calcutta  one 
day  late  for  her  wedding,  to  which  we  had  been 
invited  and  which  we  attended  the  next  day,  the 
happy  bridegroom  being  the  devoted  Secretary  of 
the  Sunday  School  Union  for  all  India. 

Our  work  in  Calcutta  includes  almost  every 


86       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

variety  of  missionary  work  which  we  are  carrying 
on  anywhere  in  India.  We  have  an  important 
publishing  house,  which  issues  multitudes  of  books 
and  tracts  and  also  TJic  Indian  Witness,  one  of 
the  very  best  religious  newspapers  published  in 
the  country,  of  which  the  Rev.  J.  E.  Robinson, 
D.D.,  is  the  excellent  editor.  Our  English-speak- 
ing church  has  a  fine,  large  edifice,  a  membership 
of  three  hundred  and  sixty,  and  a  very  numerous 
and  influential  congregation.  We  have  an  orphan- 
age, a  deaconess  home,  churches  and  Sunday 
schools  for  natives  speaking  different  tongues, 
schools  for  boys  and  for  girls — English,  Eurasian, 
and  natives — and  amission  for  seamen.  I  must  not 
fail  to  make  special  mention  of  the  English-speak- 
ing boys'  school,  an  excellent  institution  of  high 
grade,  whose  very  fine,  spacious,  and  commodious 
building  was  the  gift  of  Mr.  Robert  Laidlaw,  an 
Englishman  who  by  skill,  pluck,  and  fair  dealing 
has  accumulated  a  large  fortune  in  India;  a  devoted 
Christian  and  faithful  Methodist,  and  a  lay  dele- 
gate to  the  General  Conference  of  1888.  All  honor 
to  such  penniless  boys  self-promoted.  The  Calcutta 
school  for  native  boys  urgently  needs  a  similar 
benefactor. 

We  found  letters  awaiting  our  arrival  here, 
some  of  them  giving  us  items  of  interest  concerning 
the  session  of  the  General  Missionary  Committee  in 
Philadelphia.  Bishop  Thoburn  is  with  us,  restored 
in  health.  Everybody  tells  us  that  strangers  must 
go  slow  in  India,  and  take  things  easy  because  of 


FIFTEEN  HUNDRED  MILES  NORTHWARD. 


87 


the  climate,  and  then  all  seem  to  conspire  to  com- 
pel us  to  go  fast  and  take  things  hard  ;  so  it  must 
be,  if  we  get  all  necessary  work  crowded  into  the 
short  time  we  can  be  here.  My  days  and  hours  are 
crowded  overflowingly  full  in  this  city,  with  official 
duties,  visitations  of  our  schools,  and  slight  snatches 
of  sight-seeing. 

The  people  here  make  a  great  deal  of  Christ- 
mas. Banks  and  offices  are  closed,  not  only  on  that 
day,  but  also  on  the  day  before  and  the  day  after. 
We  had  no  session  of  Conference  and  no  cabinet 
meeting.  We  attended  the  early  morning  prayer 
meeting  at  half  past  five,  led  by  Bishop  Thoburn  ; 
and  at  half  past  ten  o'clock  I  preached  to  a  very 
large  congregation  on  "  What  think  ye  of  Christ  ?  " 

Dr.  Goucher  preached  at  half  past  eight  o'clock 
on  Conference  Sunday,  after  which  I  ordained  two 
deacons,  ^issisted  by  Bishop  Thoburn.  In  the  even- 
ing he  ordained  two  elders  after  I  had  preached. 

The  Hooghly  River,  one  hundred  and  twenty 
miles  from  Calcutta  to  the  sea,  is  of  very  difficult 
and  dangerous  navigation  because  of  the  constant 
shifting  of  the  sand  bars  in  its  channel.  One  or 
two  vessels  are  generally  sunk  in  it  each  year.  If 
a  ship  strikes  on  a  bar  the  swift  current  may 
keel  it  over  and  sink  it  in  an  hour;  but  there  are 
plenty  of  small  boats  about  to  take  off  passen- 
gers, and  I  have  not  heard  of  any  loss  of  life. 
When  we  came  up  near  the  place  of  special  danger, 
every  porthole  was  closed  so  as  to  keep  out  the 
water  in  case  of  accident.    The  mild  excitement 


88       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


which  this  causes  with  hundreds  of  vessels  going  up 
and  down  every  month  does  not  add  much  tension, 
however,  to  nerves  strained  by  famine,  war,  plague, 
earthquake,  and  riot. 

My  health  is  excellent,  and  I  am  constantly 
filled  with  wonder  and  delight  at  the  manifest 
signs  of  a  great  work  of  grace  under  the  care  of  our 
Church  here,  and  of  a  measureless  opportunity  for 
gathering  converts  by  the  ten  thousand,  if  we  only 
had  the  qualified  workers  necessary  to  care  for  them 
and  train  them  after  baptism.  I  feel  sure  that  any 
adequate  sense  of  the  situation  in  regard  to  this 
matter  would  cause  the  greatest  missionary  revival 
in  the  Church  at  home  that  it  has  ever  had. 

The  last  Calcutta  Gazette  contained  a  report  on 
the  effects  of  the  earthquake  of  June  12  through- 
out Bengal,  which,  though  decidedly  belated  owing 
to  the  delay  of  some  districts  in  furnishing  statis- 
tics, gives  the  first  complete  description  of  the  full 
extent  of  the  disaster  in  the  lower  provinces :  "  All 
accounts  agree  that  the  shock  could  not  have  hap- 
pened at  an  hour  more  favorable  to  minimizing  loss 
of  life,  and  the  total  fatalities  reported  throughout 
Bengal  were  only  one  hundred  and  thirty-five,  a  re- 
markable result  considering  the  far-reaching  range 
of  the  disturbance.  The  destruction  to  govern- 
ment buildings,  as  measured  by  the  cost  of  repairs, 
is  estimated  at  nearly  thirteen  lakhs  of  rupees,  but 
private  property  suffered  much  more  heavily.  Cal- 
cutta proprietors  speak  of  damage  to  the  extent  of 
sixteen  and  one  half  lakhs— $550,000 — though  this 


FIFTEEN  HUNDRED  MILES  NORTHWARD.  89 


is  regarded  as  exaggerated.  The  damage  to  the 
Assam-Bengal  Hne  has  already  been  described,  but 
the  Eastern  Bengal  State  Railway,  which  was  the 
only  other  Hne  seriously  injured,  was  blocked  for 
a  fortnight  by  the  destruction  of  bridges,  culverts, 
and  embankments  south  of  Siliguri,  and  through 
communication  on  the  Parbatipur-Jatrapur  branch 
was  also  interrupted  for  some  time.  Postal  com- 
munication between  the  plains  and  Darjeeling, 
where  the  government  headquarters  were  at  the 
time,  was  suspended  for  three  days.  As  regards 
the  physical  results  and  surface  changes,  the  same 
effects  were  noticeable  as  in  Assam,  although  on  a 
more  moderate  scale.  Long  cracks  and  fissures 
opened  in  the  ground,  water  and  sand  were  ejected, 
wells  were  choked  up,  and  river  channels  blocked 
and  diverted  by  the  upheaval  of  their  beds,  thus 
altering  the  drainage  and  leading  to  floods.  The 
Rangpur  district,  on  the  whole,  suffered  most  in 
this  way,  and  a  number  of  villages  were  continually 
under  water  after  the  earthquake  until  the  end  of 
the  rains.  Taken  all  around,  the  severity  of  the 
shock  and  the  damage  caused  in  Bengal  were  far 
more  serious  than  any  of  the  half-dozen  earth- 
quakes of  the  previous  one  hundred  and  forty 
years  of  sufficient  intensity  to  have  been  especially 
remembered." 

I  am  glad  to  learn  that  in  the  midst  of  this 
terrible  destruction  in  Calcutta  by  the  earthquake, 
in  which  the  spire  of  the  English  cathedral  was 
thrown  down  and  the  roof  seriously  damaged,  and 


90       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


in  which  forty  families  belonging  to  our  English- 
speaking  church  in  that  city  had  their  houses 
destroyed,  not  a  single  piece  of  the  property  be- 
longing to  our  Church  was  injured.  We  have  three 
churches,  five  school  buildings,  a  publishing  house, 
and  four  or  five  pastors'  residences. 

Benares,*  December  30. 

All  tourists  who  wish  to  see  Hinduism  as  it  really 
is  come  to  this  most  "sacred  "  city  on  the  Ganges. 

We  were  met  at  the  station  by  two  daughters 
of  Dr.  E.  J.  Lazarus,  who  took  us  in  a  fine  private 
carriage  to  their  almost  palatial  home,  in  which 
missionaries  of  any  Church  and  their  friends  are 
always  sure  of  a  hospitable  welcome.  The  doctor 
has  entertained  several  of  our  bishops  and  many  of 
our  missionaries.  He  and  his  family  are  actively 
engaged  in  various  religious  enterprises. 

We  have  no  mission  in  Benares,  but  we  were 
courteously  shown  about  the  city  for  two  days  in 
the  carriage  of  our  host  by  his  daughters,  and  by  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Gregory,  the  Wesleyan  missionary. 

Cawnpore,  January  3,  1898. 
We  have  been  most  delightfully  entertained 
here  for  a  few  days  in  the  hospitable  home  of  Mrs. 
Bond,  formerly  Miss  Sue  McBurnie,  of  the  Phila- 
delphia Branch,  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  So- 
ciety. This  city  was  one  of  the  great  sufferers  in 
the  mutiny  of  1857.    We  have  visited  the  Memorial 


*  See  page  237. 


FIFTEEN  HUNDRED  MILES  NORTHWARD.  91 


Well,  the  Massacre  Ghat,  etc.;  also  the  most  unique 
bazaar  and  market  we  have  seen  anywhere. 

We  have  seen  hanging  on  four  or  five  trees  I 
think  fully  one  thousand  "  flying  foxes  " — a  strange 
species  of  giant  bat,  with  a  head  and  body  just  like 
a  fox  and  with  filmy  wings  which  spread  out  four 
feet. 

We  have  attended  the  opening  of  a  new  build- 
ing for  our  native  girls'  school.  One  evening  Mrs. 
Bond  invited  in  a  number  of  missionaries  to  tea 
with  us,  including  several  from  the  Union  Zenana 
Mission,  founded  by  Mrs.  Doremus,  of  New  York. 

I  have  here  baptized  ten  children  between  three 
and  eleven  years  of  age,  "  famine  waifs  "  that  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Bond  have  adopted.  They  have  twenty- 
one  such  children  now. 

LUCKNOW,  January  3. 

On  my  previous  visit  to  this  place  I  had  met 
Miss  Isabella  Thoburn,  who  may  fitly  be  termed 
thern^other  of  our  woman's  work  in  India,  and  who 
for  almost  thirty  years  has  wrought  as  nobly  in 
her  realm  as  her  bishop  brother  has  in  his. 

Lucknow  has  become  famous  for  all  time  by  the 
magnificent  defense  made  there  by  a  garrison  of 
British  soldiers  in  the  time  of  the  mutiny,  and  by 
the  glorious  relief  achieved  by  Sir  Henry  Havelock, 
the  model  Christian  soldier,  in  whom  valor  and 
patriotic  devotion  found  their  climax,  and  whose 
grave,  near  the  scene  of  his  greatest  victory,  at- 
tracts all  tourists. 


92       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 
Conference  Sketches. 

Bareilly,  January  8,  1898. 

MY  Conference  work  in  this  country  is  very 
interesting  indeed,  and  is  easy  in  comparison 
with  the  large  home  Conferences,  partly  because 
these  Conferences  are  so  much  smaller,  and  largely 
because  the  official  labors  and  responsibilities  are 
divided  between  Bishop  Thoburn  and  myself.  This 
North  India  Conference  is  the  largest  of  them  all, 
having  eighty-six  members,  about  one  third  foreign 
missionaries  and  two  thirds  natives.  We  had 
hoped  before  this  time  to  see  Bishop  Joyce,  but 
he  has  evidently  been  detained  in  China  longer 
than  he  anticipated,  and  is  now  nearing  Calcutta  ; 
so  we  expect  to  see  him  at  the  Conferences  of  the 
next  two  weeks. 

I  wish  it  were  possible  for  me  to  convey  some 
vivid  impression  of  the  missionary  work  in  this 
country,  and  of  the  way  the  missionaries  live  and 
work.  Their  houses — I  mean,  of  course,  those  of 
the  American  missionaries — are  generally  in  large 
"  compounds  "  of  from  five  to  twenty  acres  each. 
Some  of  them  are  built  entirely  of  clay  ("  mud  " 
they  call  it  here);  others  of  coarse,  heavy  bricks, 
covered  with  stucco.  The  walls  are  very  thick  and 
solid,  the  ceilings  generally  about  twenty  feet 


CONFERENCE  SKETCHES. 


93 


high,  with  raih-oad  bars  for  beams.  Only  teak 
wood  can  be  used,  for  the  white  ants  will  quickly 
cat  up  almost  any  other  kind  of  wood.  The  rooms 
are  large  and  spacious,  each  bedroom  having  con- 
nected with  it  a  bath  room,  with  a  tin  or  earthen 
bath  tub.  Most  of  the  houses  have  no  fire  in  them, 
though  here  in  North  India  fires  are  indispensa- 
ble for  comfort  in  the  short,  brilliantly  sunny,  but 
rather  cold  winters. 

Just  now  we  are  said  to  be  having  the  coldest 
time  known  in  years  in  Barcilly.  The  thermometer 
stood  43°  this  morning  outdoors  and  54°  in  my 
room.  We  have  to  be  loaded  down  with  bedclothes, 
but  sleep  very  comfortably.  The  church  in  which 
we  meet  has  no  provision  for  fire  in  it,  so  I  am 
wearing  my  thickest  winter  flannels  and  cloth  suit, 
and  my  winter  overcoat  and  silk  cap,  and  in  ad- 
dition to  these  sit  in  the  Conference  room  with 
my  shawl  round  my  knees,  not  shivering,  but 
wishing  for  a  Philadelphia  furnace. 

What  I  say  about  the  weather  here  must  not 
lead  you  to  think  of  the  Avinters  in  which  you 
shiver.  Dr.  Goucher  plucked  this  morning,  in  this 
compound,  about  three  dozen  splendid  roses  of  five 
different  colors  ;  also  a  cluster  of  violets.  What  do 
you  think  of  that  for  January  8  ? 

Every  evening  at  eight  o'clock  the  American 
missionaries  and  their  wives,  and  the  Women's 
Foreign  Missionary  Society  ladies,  about  fifty  in 
number,  hold  free-and-easy,  conversational,  spirit- 
ual, marvelously  interesting  prayer  meetings,  which 


94       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


have  been  held  daily  at  the  sessions  of  this  Confer- 
ence ever  since  it  was  organized.  I  led  the  meet- 
ing last  night,  and  gave  them  as  a  motto  what  they 
certainly  need  to  apply  to  their  own  hearts  for  their 
comfort  amid  the  trials  of  missionaries'  lives,  these 
words  of  St.  Paul,  which  have  been  an  unspeakable 
blessing  to  me  ever  since  they  found  me,  some  forty 
years  ago  :  "  My  God  shall  supply  all  your  need, 
according  to  his  riches  in  glory  by  Christ  Jesus." 

Concerning  the  work  of  missionaries,  I  have 
found  no  brief  statement  of  the  misconceptions 
many  entertain  (and  at  the  same  time  of  the  nature 
and  value  of  one  important  part  of  that  work)  more 
vivid  and  more  just  than  that  given  by  Julian 
Hawthorne  in  the  Cosmopolitan  magazine  for  Sep- 
tember, 1897.  I  must  indulge  myself  in  a  brief 
quotation  from  it,  premising  that  the  missionary 
family  referred  to  belong  to  our  Church: 

"The  household  consisted  of  the  missionary  and 
his  wife  and  a  young  lady  who  was  assisting  them, 
and  three  or  four  immaculate  Mohammedan  serv- 
ants, at  wages  of  from  one  to  two  dollars  a  month. 
There  were  a  horse  and  buggy,  a  chapel,  and,  within 
the  walls  of  the  compound,  some  neat  buildings 
for  the  accommodation  of  the  native  children  who 
were  supported  and  instructed  by  the  mission. 
The  family  sat  down  thrice  a  day  to  a  wholesome 
but  Spartan  meal.  The  husband  worked  with  all 
his  might  from  dawn  to  dark  ;  and  after  dark  in 
his  study,  helping  distress,  averting  evil,  cheering 
sorrow,  enlightening  ignorance,  and  praying  with 


CONFERENCE  SKETCHES. 


95 


heart  and  soul  to  the  God  and  Christ  who  was 
more  real  to  him  than  any  earthly  thing.  His 
lovely,  artless,  human,  holy  wife,  with  faith  like  a 
little  child's,  and  innocent  as  a  child,  yet  wise  and 
steadfast  in  all  that  touched  her  work,  labored  as 
untiringly  and  selflessly  as  her  husband  ;  and  so 
did  the  other  angel  in  the  house.  There  were, 
perhaps,  a  hundred  native  children,  either  orphaned 
or  deserted,  who  had  begun  to  get  flesh  on  their 
bones,  and  were  busy  and  happy  in  learning  to 
read  and  write  their  native  language  and  in  sing- 
ing hymns  of  praise  to  the  new  living  God  who 
loves  children,  meeting  morning  and  evening  in 
the  chapel  for  the  purpose,  and  to  listen  to  stories 
about  this  God's  loving  dealings  with  his  creatures, 
told  by  native  Christian  teachers  and  by  the  mis- 
sionary himself.  They  also  learned,  for  the  first 
time  in  their  lives,  what  it  was  to  live  in  clean  and 
orderly  rooms,  and  to  be  fed  abundantly  and  regu- 
larly, and  to  be  treated  with  steady,  intelligent, 
and  unselfish  affection.  These  children  would 
have  died  of  the  famine  had  not  the  mission  found 
and  saved  them. 

"'Travelers  in  India,'  remarked  my  friend, 
with  his  cheery  smile,  '  report  us  missionaries  as 
living  in  luxury,  waited  on  by  troops  of  servants, 
demoralizing  native  simplicity  by  an  impractica- 
ble morality,  stuffing  them  with  theological  dogmas 
which  they  can't  understand,  forcing  them  to  wear 
unsuitable  and  unaccustomed  clothes  ;  and  that  the 
upshot  of  our  work  is  to  make  them  hypocritically 


96       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


profess  a  faith  they  don't  beheve  in,  in  order  to 
curry  favor,  and  to  ruin  them  with  the  vices  of  civ- 
iUzation  instead  of  saving  them  with  its  virtues. 
Well,  now  you  have  a  chance  to  see  how  it  is  for 
yourself.' " 

Allahabad,  January  17. 

The  Northwest  India  Conference,  which  has 
just  been  in  session,  has,  more  than  any  other  Con- 
ference I  have  seen  in  any  land,  the  "  swing  of  con- 
quest." During  the  past  year  it  has  had  a  phe- 
nomenal increase  in  the  number  of  baptisms,  of 
probationers,  and  of  full  members.  It  has  been 
mightily  inspired,  and  is  now  deeply  distressed,  by 
the  Macedonian  cry  which  pours  in  upon  it  from 
the  whole  circle  of  the  horizon.  I  have  never  met 
a  band  of  workers  so  penetrated  by  the  conviction 
that  all  things  are  possible  to  them  if  they  can  only 
get  the  men  and  the  money.  In  spite  of  all  their 
discouragements,  their  faith  transcends  their  fears. 
They  seem  to  hear  the  voice  of  God,  even  as 
Abraham  did  at  Bethel,  saying: 

"  Lift  up  now  thine  eyes,  and  look  from  the 
place  where  thou  art,  northward  and  southward 
and  eastward  and  westward. 

"  For  all  the  land  which  thou  seest,  to  thee  will 
I  give  it,  and  to  thy  seed  forever. 

"  And  I  will  make  thy  seed  as  the  dust  of  the 
earth  :  so  that  if  a  man  can  number  the  dust  of  the 
earth,  then  shall  thy  seed  also  be  numbered. 

"  Arise,  walk  through  the  land  in  the  length  of  it 
and  in  the  breadth  of  it ;  for  I  will  give  it  unto  thee." 


CONFERENCE  SKETCHES. 


97 


This  Coiifci-eiicc  has  about  forty-five  mhiisters, 
and  is  but  little  nioi-e  than  half  the  size  of  the 
North  India,  which  we  have  just  held  in  Barcilly. 
In  addition  to  what  this  Conference  gets  from  the 
Missionary  Society,  Bishop  Thoburn  raises  for  it 
from  private  sources  about  $12,000  a  year.  Still, 
after  cutting  as  closely  as  possible,  we  found  at  the 
Finance  Committee  meeting  that  we  were  yet 
$1,200  short.  I  never  saw  such  cheerful  and  self- 
sacrificing  giving.  The  presiding  elders  subscribed 
ten  per  cent  of  their  salaries  (and  others  subscribed 
too),  and  when  it  was  mentioned  in  the  evening 
prayer  meeting  several  of  the  Woman's  Foreign 
Missionary  Society  ladies  insisted  on  giving  one 
hundred  rupees  each.  To-day  they  are  all  as  happy 
about  it  as  though  each  had  found  a  little  fortune. 
God  will  reward  them. 

The  work  in  this  Conference  is  the  most  rapidly 
growing  work  we  have  in  India,  and  all  feel  that  it 
must  not  be  curtailed. 

Our  gracious  host  at  this  Conference,  the  Rev. 
Rockwell  Clancy,  has  provided,  after  the  labors  of 
the  morning,  for  occasional  amusement  in  the 
afternoon,  on  the  fine  lawn  before  his  house.  One 
afternoon  he  had  a  snake  charmer,  who  showed  us 
his  dancing  cobras  and  quarreling  scorpions,  and 
also  a  rope  walker  who  performed  most  marvelous 
feats.  This  afternoon  he  has  helped  me  to  cele- 
brate my  birthday  on  the  back  of  an  elephant, 
where  I  was  photographed,  together  with  Bishop 
Thoburn,  Bishop  Joyce,  and  Dr.  Goucher. 


98       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


LUCKNOW,  January  20. 
Bishop  and  Mrs.  Joyce  are  with  us.  The  Cen- 
tral India  Conference  has  opened  delightfully.  It 
concentrates  in  a  wonderful  way  the  interest  of  our 
work  in  all  this  region,  being  quite  akin  to  our  Gen- 
eral Conference.  It  has  delegates  from  Singapore, 
Rangoon,  Madras,  Calcutta,  Bombay,  Naini  Tal, 
and  all  the  great  cities  between  these.  Each  class 
and  phase  of  our  missionary  work  is  represented 
in  it.  Its  delegates  come  from  the  Annual,  Dis- 
trict, and  Women's  Conferences.  Some  of  the 
ladies  take  part,  in  brief,  modest  and  pertinent 
remarks.  Most  matters  of  importance  are  referred 
to  some  of  the  fourteen  standing  committees,  and 
are  carefully  considered  there,  and  then  brought 
forward  in  elaborate  reports.  We  have  had  some 
very  able  debates,  which  have  resulted,  in  two  or 
three  cases,  in  tabling  reports  of  comm.ittees  and  in 
preventing  manifestly  unwise  action  ;  and  in  similar 
ways  some  very  good  new  measures  have  been 
adopted. 

The  members  and  guests  of  the  Central  Confer- 
ence, about  one  hundred  and  twenty  in  number, 
are  scattered  around,  every  missionary  family  being 
overrun  ;  Miss  Thoburn  having  a  large  number  at 
her  school,  and  a  good  many  sleeping  in  tents  set 
up  all  around  the  compounds.  Our  entertainment 
is  excellent.  I  have  learned  to  love  guavas,  which 
at  first  tasted  to  me  like  turpentine  ;  and  tea — well ! 
everybody  drinks  tea  in  unlimited  quantities  many 
times  a  day.     The  truth  is,  everybody  is  afraid  of 


CONFERENCE  SKETCHES. 


99 


the  water  and  of  the  milk,  unless  certain  that  they 
have  been  boiled.  Last  year  a  renowned  physi- 
cian, who  had  lived  many  years  in  India  and  had 
gone  back  to  end  his  days  in  England,  was  per- 
suaded, by  the  promise  of  a  great  fee,  to  return  to 
treat  again  a  native  prince,  who  had  formerly  been 
a  patient  of  his.  On  his  arrival  the  prince  gave 
him  a  feast,  at  which  he  drank  a  glass  of  milk  into 
which  an  unfaithful  butler  had  poured  some  un- 
boiled water,  to  fill  up  the  glass ;  and  the  physi- 
cian died  of  cholera  before  the  next  morning.  At 
the  railroad  restaurants  travelers  generally  take  tea 
or  bottled  soda  water. 

Yesterday  noon  we  had  an  eclipse  of  the  sun, 
but  we  were  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  too 
far  north  to  see  it  total ;  yet  it  was  very  solemn 
and  impressive.  The  partial  darkness  was  that 
of  a  cold  and  sullen  sunset  coming  suddenly. 
About  nine  tenths  of  the  sun  was  eclipsed ; 
only  a  bright  crescent  remained.  The  spots  of 
sunshine  on  the  ground  amid  the  shadows  of 
foliage  were  all  crescents ;  so  were  the  spots  of 
light  on  sheets  of  paper  held  two  feet  away  from 
other  sheets  pierced  with  pinholes.  We  took  a 
recess,  and  when  we  went  back  into  the  church 
one  wall  of  it  was  illuminated  by  rays  from  a 
stained  glass  window,  and  in  the  midst  of  the  bril- 
liant colors  there  were  four  golden  crescents.  The 
natives  talked  of  the  eclipse  as  the  sun  being  swal- 
lowed by  a  dragon.  One  coolie  ran  through  the 
street    shouting   out  that   statement,  and  with 


100      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


Yankee  ingenuity  added  that  if  the  people  would 
hand  him  some  backsheesh  the  dragon  would  soon 
give  the  sun  back. 

On  Sunday  morning  at  half  past  eight  o'clock 
Dr.  Goucher  led  a  young  people's  meeting,  and  at 
half  past  nine  I  preached.  After  we  had  sung 
"  Never  further  than  thy  cross  "  and  "  Take  my  life 
and  let  it  be  consecrated,  Lord,  to  thee,"  Bishop 
Joyce  baptized  fifteen  young  women,  thrown  upon 
our  care  by  the  famine;  all  of  whom,  but  for  such 
refuge,  would  doubtless  have  been  forced  into  lives 
of  shame.  Three  of  them  were  Brahmans,  two 
Mohammedans,  and  ten  outcasts ;  all  converted. 
Such  a  sight,  or  any  of  fifty  scenes  I  have  wit- 
nessed in  India,  would  electrify  and  melt  any  con- 
gregation in  America. 


TWO  PEN  PICTURES. 


101 


CHAPTER  XIV. 
Two  Pen  Pictures. 

I HAVE  never  coveted  the  rare  art  of  painting 
with  the  pen  so  much  as  since  I  came  to  India. 
It  would  bean  unspeakable  pleasure  if  I  could  com- 
municate to  my  friends  in  America  a  vivid  and  im- 
pressive sense  of  many  things  which  I  have  seen  in 
this  oriental  land  ;  especially,  if  by  any  means  I 
could  set  forth  any  fit  representations  of  the  sharp 
and  pathetic  contrasts  between  heathenism  and 
Christianity  which  thrust  themselves  before  my 
eyes  almost  every  day.  Possibly  something  may 
be  gained  by  attempting  the  impossible.  I  have 
recently  witnessed  such  an  indescribable  contrast. 

There  is  now  in  progress  iii  Allahabad  at  the  junc- 
tion of  the  two  very  sacred  rivers,  the  Ganges  and 
the  Jumna,  a  heathen  vuia.^  Mela  is  the  word  for 
any  great  religious  festival,  and  has  been  applied 
for  ages  to  the  great  gatherings  of  pilgrims  in  sacred 
places  for  the  worship  of  their  gods.  The  same 
word  has  also  been  adopted  by  Christians  for  their 
annual  open-air  religious  gatherings,  and  in  their 
use  of  it  it  is  pretty  nearly  synonymous  with  "  camp 
meeting."  The  inela  now  in  progress  in  this  city 
lasts  about  a  month.  The  pilgrims  come  and  go, 
most  of  them  staying  for  from  one  to  three  or  four 


See  page  223. 


102      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


days  ;  but  some,  claiming  to  be  especially  devout, 
remain  the  entire  month.  They  suppose  there  is 
very  special  virtue  in  bathing  in  the  sacred  waters 
at  the  junction  of  these  two  most  renowned  of  their 
sacred  rivers. 

I  saw  crowds  of  pilgrims,  men  and  women,  com- 
ing and  going,  carrying  large  coarse  blankets,  in 
which  they  roll  themselves  up  to  sleep  at  night  in 
the  clear  but  sharply  cold  nights  of  this  winter  sea- 
son. They  gather  chiefly  on  the  vast  sandy  plain, 
which  stretches  away  from  the  low  bluff  on  the 
river  bank,  and  which  their  numberless  feet  have 
trodden  into  a  deep  dust  ;  through  which,  on  a  very 
wide  avenue  which  is  the  main  highway  from  the 
city  to  the  river,  water  carriers,  with  huge  skin 
bottles  slung  from  their  shoulders,  sprinkle  broad 
paths.  All  along  the  chief  avenue  there  are  lines  of 
beggars,  many  of  whom  clamorously  thrust  them- 
selves before  you,  displaying  most  frightful  physical 
deformities — there  were  several  lepers  among  them. 
Others  sat  in  the  dust  on  their  blankets,  or  on  pieces 
of  coarse  sailcloth,  importunately  calling  for  alms, 
now  and  then  receiving  the  smallest  copper  coins, 
or  cowries,  or  little  handfuls  of  rice  or  other 
grains. 

At  frequent  intervals  there  were  devotees,  some 
of  whom  have  been  for  years  in  most  painful  pos- 
tures, hoping  thereby  to  become  holy,  and  who  are 
familiarly  spoken  of  by  the  Hindus  as  "  holy  men." 
Some  were  on  beds  of  spikes ;  some  buried  in  the 
dust  all  except  their  nostrils ;  some  standing  for 


TWO  PEN  PICTURES. 


103 


years  on  one  foot,  or  with  an  arm  outstretched  and 
as  stiff  as  wood. 

There  passed  along  through  this  vast  crowd  of 
pilgrims  and  beggars  a  few  men  distributing  alms, 
doubtless  with  some  notion  of  religious  duty,  but  in 
a  way  which  showed  their  utter  lack  of  sympathy 
and,  in  some  cases,  a  spirit  of  brutality.  One  man 
in  a  carriage  had  two  servants  with  him  to  dis- 
tribute very  coarse  and  cheap  shawls  or  blankets. 
Wherever  he  went  his  carriage  was  thronged  by 
scores  of  clamorous  beggars,  many  of  whom  he  very 
rudely  pushed  aside  ;  and  one  very  wretched-look- 
ing man  who  was  too  clamorous,  and  who  obstructed 
his  way,  he  struck  on  the  face  with  his  cane,  draw- 
ing blood.  The  poor  fellow  then  sank  down  in  the 
sand  in  despair  and  gave  up  his  effort.  Other  men 
passed  along  with  bags  of  grain  and  flung  handfuls 
of  it  at  the  wretches  sitting  on  their  blankets  by  the 
wayside,  so  carelessly  that  much  of  it  fell  in  the  sand 
instead  of  on  the  blankets,  and  had  to  be  picked  out 
grain  by  grain. 

No  words  of  mine  can  convey  any  just  sense  of 
what  I  felt  concerning  the  measureless  and  des- 
perate degradation  which  their  heathenism  had 
brought  to  hundreds  of  millions  of  people  in  this 
country;  nor  of  the  zest  and  relish  with  which  I 
turn  away  from  such  scenes,  and  often  with  melted 
heart  and  moistened  eyes  look  on  other  pictures, 
such  as  a  Methodist  Conference  has  just  now  fur- 
nished me.  It  was  the  North  India  Conference, 
the  mother  of  our  noble  work  in  this  country,  which, 


104      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

after  all  the  territory  which  has  been  set  off  from  it 
to  constitute  other  Conferences,  now  has  eighty-six 
ministers,  more  than  two  thirds  of  whom  are  natives. 
It  met  in  Bareilly,  where  Dr.  Butler  planted  India 
Methodism,  and  where,  in  less  than  one  year,  it  was 
rudely  uprooted  by  the  Great  Mutiny,  but  was 
replanted  the  following  year.  That  planting  now 
has  fruitage  but  poorly  indicated  by  such  statistics 
as  these :  nearly  eighty  thousand  communicants, 
and  about  the  same  number  of  Sunday  school  schol- 
ars. From  day  to  day  there  sat  in  the  Conference 
the  venerable  Joel  Janvier,  our  first  native  preacher, 
furnished  us  by  the  Presbyterian  Church.  He  has 
long  been  totally  blind,  but  his  glowing  words  as- 
sured us  that  he  clearly  sees  the  Eternal  City  to 
which  he  is  hastening.  There  sat  also  in  the  Con- 
ference from  day  to  day  Rev.  Dr.  Humphrey,  who 
near  Bareilly  baptized  our  first  convert  in  India. 

The  daily  program  of  the  Conference  ran  thus : 
Conference  prayer  meeting  at  eight  o'clock  in  the 
morning ;  session  of  the  Conference  from  eleven  to 
two;  at  two  o'clock  the  women's  conference  and 
the  meeting  of  the  presiding  ciders  ;  at  six  o'clock 
a  sermon  ;  and  at  eight  o'clock,  around  the  "  mess 
table,"  after  tea,  an  exceedingly  fresh,  unconven- 
tional, conversational,  spiritual  prayer  and  confer- 
ence meeting  of  some  sixty  American  missionaries, 
wives  of  missionaries,  and  women  workers.  This 
meeting  has  always  been  a  distinctive  and  most 
delightful  feature  of  the  North  India  Conference, 
and  is  anticipated  from  year  to  year  as  an  occasion 


TWO  PEN  PICTURES. 


105 


of  great  spiritual  refreshment.  Many  a  young  mis- 
sionary and  lady  teacher  has  found  it  both  an  ar- 
senal and  an  armory. 

The  usual  Sunday  services  were  productive  of 
much  religious  interest  and  quickening  ;  but  the  oc- 
casion which  furnished  me  a  picture  long  to  hang  in 
the  gallery  of  my  memory  was  the  baptism  of  a  hun- 
dred and  fifteen  little  girls  ;  "  famine  waifs  "  a  year 
ago,  now  surrounded  by  the  inestimable  blessings 
of  a  Christian  home  in  our  orphanage,  under  the 
care  of  Miss  English.  They  all  sat  on  the  floor,  in 
three  rows,  in  a  large  space  in  front  of  the  pulpit, 
their  bare  feet  projecting  from  under  their  neat, 
plain  dresses,  and  their  heads  wrapped  in  little 
chadars.  Many  of  them  had  very  bright  faces  and 
piercing  black  eyes.  One  benefit  of  the  awful  fam- 
ine is  that  thousands  of  such  young  immortals  who 
would  have  lived  and  died  heathen  are  now  under 
the  care  of  the  Christian  Church,  many  hundreds 
of  them  in  the  orphanages  of  our  own  Church. 

Immediately  after  the  close  of  the  session  of  the 
Conference  I  went  to  a  little  village  of  mud  huts, 
five  miles  from  the  city,  for  the  baptism  of  forty- 
four  persons,  recent  converts,  wath  their  infant  chil- 
dren, and  to  lay  the  foundation  of  the  new  Butler 
Chapel.  It  was  peculiarly  affecting  to  see  these 
"living  stones,"  just  hewn  from  nature's  quarry, 
placed  for  baptism  on  the  site  of  the  chapel  about 
to  be  built.  We  first  placed  a  few  coarse,  unburnt 
bricks  in  the  trench  dug  for  the  foundation,  spread 
some  mud  on  them,  and  consecrated  them  in  the 


106      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

name  of  the  holy  Trinity.  The  presiding  elder 
closely  questioned  the  adult  candidates  for  baptism  ; 
breaking  down  the  questions  into  little  bits,  making 
comments  on  them,  and  mentioning  the  specific  sins 
which  they  most  needed  to  give  up ;  and  then  we 
sprinkled  the  dusky  foreheads,  pronouncing  over 
them  the  adorable  Triune  name.  The  entire  scene 
was  exceedingly  primitive,  rude,  and  simple  ;  but 
probably  no  more  so  than  baptism  in  the  apostolic 
times.  Our  veteran  presiding  elders  assure  me  that 
in  such  cases,  where  most  of  the  population  of  little 
villages  turn  to  Christ  in  baptism,  if  they  are  faith- 
fully looked  after  by  pastor-teachers,  it  often  occurs 
that  not  five  per  cent  of  them  go  back  from  their 
Christian  profession,  and  that  the  most  of  them 
steadily  progress  in  moral  conduct  and  Christian 
life,  and  many  of  them  attain  to  a  very  clear  and 
growing  personal  religious  experience. 


CENTRAL  INDIA  CONFERENCE. 


107 


CHAPTER  XV. 
Central  India  Conference. 


[Address  to  the  Central  India  Conference  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  at  Lucknow,  January  20,  1898.] 

Brethren  and  Sisters,  Dearly  Beloved  in 
THE  Lord : 

\/0U  meet  this  year  under  circumstances  some- 


1  what  novel.  In  all  its  previous  sessions  this 
Conference  has  had  but  a  single  president.  It  was 
organized  under  the  supervision  of  one  of  the  Gen- 
eral Superintendents  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  as  its  president,  and  since  the  year  1888 
has  had  for  its  sole  president  a  missionary  bishop. 
The  General  Conference,  the  great  law-making  body 
of  our  Church,  at  its  last  session,  in  1896,  thought 
it  wise  to  introduce  into  the  law  of  the  Church  a 
provision  for  the  joint  supcrintendency  of  every 
Mission  under  the  supervision  of  a  missionary 
bishop,  by  that  bishop  and  the  general  superin- 
tendents of  the  whole  Church,  once  in  each  quad- 
rennium.  In  accordance  with  this  arrangement  you 
meet  this  year  under  the  presidency  of  two  of  your 
bishops. 

Permit  me  frankly  to  say  that  it  is  a  very  great 
pleasure  to  me  to  have  been  assigned  by  my  col- 
leagues to  this  official  visitation.  When,  almost 
eighteen  years  ago,  I  was  elected  to  my  present 


108      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


office,  and  began  to  consider  the  probability  of  my 
assignment  to  foreign  visitations,  no  missionary 
field  under  the  care  of  our  Church  seemed  to  be  so 
inviting  as  India;  and  I  hoped  before  many  years 
should  elapse  to  be  assigned  to  the  Conferences  in 
this  immensely  populous  and  exceedingly  interest- 
ing country. 

Two  years  later  a  severe  physical  injury,  with  its 
consequent  lingering  disability,  rendered  it  imprac- 
ticable for  me  to  receive  that  assignment;  and 
some  of  my  junior  colleagues  enjoyed  the  great 
satisfaction  of  this  visitation  instead  of  myself. 
Four  years  ago,  however,  my  long-cherished  hope 
seemed  likely  in  large  part  to  be  realized.  Having 
been  assigned  by  the  Board  of  Bishops  to  the 
official  visitation  of  Eastern  Asia,  the  Board  of 
Managers  of  the  Missionary  Society  gave  me  a 
special  commission,  together  with  my  greatly  es- 
teemed present  traveling  companion,  the  Rev. 
John  F.  Goucher,  D.D.,  to  make  careful  inquiry 
on  one  specific  line  into  the  condition  of  our  Mis- 
sions throughout  India  and  Europe  ;  but  having 
started  on  this  errand  I  was  arrested  and  turned 
back  at  the  end  of  the  first  thousand  miles  by 
another  bodily  injury.  Excuse  these  personal 
allusions,  which  show  you  with  what  great  pleasure 
I  now  realize  my  long-cherished  expectation  of 
visiting  India. 

Greetings. 

In  the  name  of  the  Board  of  Bishops,  and  of  our 
Church  at  home,  I  bring  you  most  cordial  greet- 


CENTRAL  INDIA  CONFERENCE. 


109 


ings.  I  know  that  this  is  Methodism  greeting 
Methodism,  and  by  no  means  the  sakitation  of  one 
Church  by  another.  You  belong  to  us  and  vvc  be- 
long to  you.  We  are  one  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
one  also  in  Methodist  character,  traditions,  doctrine, 
polity,  experience,  fellowship,  and  brotherly  love. 
It  would  be  impossible  for  me  to  tell  you  how  dear 
you  are  to  the  Church  in  America,  how  intense  our 
interest  is  in  your  welfare,  with  what  admiration 
and  gratitude  to  Almighty  God  we  have  watched 
your  history  from  the  beginning,  suffering  with  you 
in  your  trials,  rejoicing  with  you  in  your  joys  ;  and 
how  we  are  filled  with  wonder  and  thankfulness  to 
the  great  Head  of  the  Church  for  the  marvelous 
success  which  from  time  to  time  in  sundry  places 
and  in  various  ways  has  marked  the  unique  history 
of  Methodism  in  India. 

First  Impressions. 

You  will  not  expect  from  me  a  resume  of  that 
history,  nor  of  the  progress  achieved  since  your  last 
biennial  session.  Your  greatly  beloved  and  inde- 
fatigable resident  bishop  can,  of  course,  render  you 
this  service  with  very  much  fuller  intelligence  than 
myself.  You  will  rather  expect  me  candidly  to 
state  some  of  my  impressions  concerning  the  situ- 
ation as  it  strikes  one  who,  although  a  stranger  in 
the  country,  is  not  altogether  a  stranger  to  the 
work  of  our  Methodism  in  India. 

While  crossing  the  Indian  Ocean  I  heard  what 
may  be  here  the  very  familiar  story  of  a  young 


110      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

missionary  recruit  on  his  outward  voyage,  who  told 
a  veteran  returning  from  a  well-earned  furlough  that 
he  had  already  reached  very  definite  impressions 
concerning  many  things  in  India,  and  proposed  to 
begin  at  once  to  furnish  them  to  the  papers  at 
home.  The  veteran  replied  :  "  Yes,  by  all  means. 
I  advise  you  to  send  them  within  three  weeks ;  for 
after  that  time  you  will  not  be  sure  enough  of  them 
to  send  them  at  all." 

The  impressions,  however,  which  I  am  about  to 
state  have  not  been  so  hastily  formed,  but  have 
their  roots  in  years  long  gone  by.  From  the  other 
side  of  the  globe  I  have  been  a  careful  observer  of 
Methodism  in  India  from  the  year  it  was  planted 
until  now.  As  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Managers 
of  the  Missionary  Society,  and  of  the  General  Mis- 
sionary Committee,  and  for  eighteen  years  with 
much  fuller  and  more  frequent  sources  of  knowledge 
as  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Bishops,  I  have 
informed  myself  about  it;  and  have  felt  profounder 
interest  in  it  than  in  any  other  mission  work  under 
the  care  of  our  Church.  Some  of  the  impressions 
thus  formed  at  a  distance  have  been  strongly  con- 
firmed, and,  I  may  say,  greatly  intensified,  by  the 
observations  of  the  past  three  months,  and  by  my 
careful  conversations  with  your  missionary  workers 
in  the  field. 

Broad  and  Solid  Foundations. 
First  of  all  I  have  been  struck  with  the  patent 
fact  that  India  Methodism  has  broad  and  solid 


CENTRAL  INDIA  CONFERENCE. 


Ill 


foundations.  In  my  judgment  it  has  occasion  to 
hold  in  grateful  and  lasting  memory  the  names  of 
William  Butler  and  William  Taylor.  Other  names 
occur  to  me  of  workers  now  in  the  field  worthy  of 
similar  honor  ;  but  I  may  mention  these  two  fathers 
of  different  departments  of  your  work  without 
invidiousncss,  because  they  long  since  left  this  field, 
and  in  age  and  feebleness  are  lingering  awhile  in 
Beulah  before  ascending  to  receive  their  starry 
crowns.  William  Butler,  flaming  with  zeal,  full  of 
continental,  and  even  world-wide,  ambition  for 
Christ  and  for  Methodism,  devised  large  things; 
bought  or  begged  large  compounds ;  built  well  ; 
and,  having  accomplished  a  great  foundation  work 
in  this  country,  went  forth  at  the  call  of  the  Church 
to  achieve  the  rare  distinction  of  being  the  founder 
of  a  second  mission  on  another  continent.  William 
Taylor  seems  to  me  to  have  done  two  important 
things  for  India  Methodism  :  in  giving  it  a  really 
remarkable  impulse  in  several  great  cities  on  evan- 
gelistic lines,  being  God's  appointed  leader  of  a 
general  revival  movement,  the  fruits  of  which  are 
still  conspicuous  in  not  a  few  of  your  very  excellent 
ministerial  and  lay  workers ;  and  also  in  founding 
several  strong  churches  on  the  principle  of  self- 
support.  You  will  all  gladly  join  me  in  the  prayer 
that  these  veteran  heroes,  who  can  no  longer  go 
forth  to  battle,  may  in  their  declining  years  be 
abundantly  cheered  and  comforted  by  that  infinite 
grace  of  which  they  have  been  God's  appointed 

channels  to  many  souls. 
8 


112      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

That  the  foundations  of  Methodism  in  this  em- 
pire have  been  soHdly  laid  is  plainly  indicated  in 
many  ways,  among  the  rest  in  these  :  the  variety, 
thoroughness,  and  excellence  of  its  educational 
system  for  both  natives  and  Europeans,  extending 
from  the  kindergartens  and  the  humblest  village 
schools  through  regular  gradations  to  a  well- 
equipped  and  creditable  theological  seminary ;  and 
also  by  its  thorough  utilization  of  the  Methodistic 
polity,  doctrines,  and  experience  which  have  been 
in  every  land  the  vital  forces  of  Methodism  from  the 
days  of  John  Wesley  until  now.  It  has  been  partic- 
ularly interesting  to  me  to  observe  the  workings 
of  your  District  Conferences,  and  to  recall  to  mind 
the  striking  historical  fact  that  the  District  Confer- 
ence had  its  conception  and  birth  in  India  before 
the  General  Conference  gave  it  legislative  standing. 
I  have  also  been  struck  at  your  camp  meetings  and 
love  feasts  with  the  definite,  and  often  the  strik- 
ingly fresh  and  unique,  statements  of  personal 
religious  experience  given  by  the  native  converts; 
and  by  the  positively  Methodistic  type  of  the 
preaching  which  I  have  heard,  alike  from  the  mis- 
sionaries and  from  the  natives.  During  four  days 
at  the  Hathras  mela  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
at  once  as  the  divine  witness  to  personal  salvation 
and  as  the  divine  anointing  for  service,  received 
such  emphasis  as  I  have  not  known  it  to  have 
received  in  any  similar  meeting  in  America.  Surely 
Christ's  promise  was  there  fulfilled,  "  He  shall  tes- 
tify of  me." 


CENTRAL  INDIA  CONFERENCE. 


113 


Character  ok  tuk  Workers. 
Another  impression  which  I  must  guardedly 
state,  lest  my  words  should  seem  fulsome,  relates 
to  the  character  of  the  workers.  One  of  the  surest 
and  readiest  tests  of  any  great  movement  may  be 
found  in  its  reflex  effect  upon  its  promoters.  I 
have  therefore  observed  with  care  the  men  and  the 
women  who  have  been  attracted  to  this  field,  the 
years  of  service  they  have  rendered  in  it,  their  anx- 
iety to  return  after  health-seeking  furloughs,  the 
recruits  who  have  been  raised  up  on  the  soil,  and 
what  manner  of  spirit  has  been  developed  in  both 
these  classes  of  workers.  During  all  my  ministry  I 
have  had  my  private  Eleventh  of  Hebrews,  my  per- 
sonal roster  of  the  heroes  of  the  faith,  holy  men 
and  women,  zealous  for  God  and  for  all  goodness  ; 
not  indeed  perfect,  especially  not  perfect  critics,  but 
better  saints  by  far  than  Samson  and  Rahab  and 
Jephtha  who  have  place  in  the  apostolic  roster ; 
self-denying,  zealous,  growing,  believing  workers 
"  of  whom  the  world  is  not  worthy,"  and  at  whose 
feet  I  am  glad  to  sit.  To  this  list  I  have  been  able 
with  clear  conviction  to  make  additions  from  the 
ranks  of  your  workers,  both  native  and  foreign, 
since  I  came  to  India.  There  are  shadows  in  every 
picture ;  there  was  a  Judas  among  the  apostles,  and 
no  doubt  there  were  weak  men  not  overburdened 
by  common  sense  or  devotion  among  the  seventy; 
yet  in  those  days  Christianity  was  planted  and  grew; 
and  it  has  been  planted  and  has  grown  in  India.  It 
has  grown  marvelously. 


114    from  the  himalayas  to  the  equator. 

Evangelistic  Successes. 

I  must  here  name  as  an  impression  (which  has 
been  to  me  almost  a  painful  one)  its  comparatively 
recent,  and,  for  reasons  which  you  will  understand, 
its  seriously  embarrassing  evangelistic  successes. 
Methodism  has  always  preached  salvation  now  to  any 
repenting  sinner,  and  has  in  every  land  been  taken  at 
its  word.  John  and  Charles  Wesley  uniquely  said, 
that  "  God  then  thrust  them  out  to  raise  a  holy 
people."  This  statement  carried  both  the  revival 
impulse  and  the  inward  propulsion  of  territorial  ex- 
pansion which  have  characterized  Methodism  in 
every  land  from  then  till  now.  Both  these  im- 
pulses are  conspicuous  in  India  Methodism.  Wil- 
liam Butler,  under  the  advice  of  Bishop  Simpson 
and  Dr.  Durbin  who  sent  him  out,  after  full  consul- 
tation with  the  heads  of  sundry  missions  in  this 
country,  gladly  accepted  the  assignment  of  a  com- 
paratively small  field  in  Northern  India,  and  began 
his  work.  The  good  seed  grew,  and  sent  out 
branches  like  those  of  the  banyan  tree  ;  they  have 
dropped  their  roots  here  and  there  all  about  India 
and  Burma  and  Malaysia,  and  they  are  bearing  fruits 
which  entitle  them  to  be  recognized  as  an  integral 
part  of  "  world-wide  Methodism." 

When,  some  ten  years  ago,  one  of  your  veteran 
and  most  esteemed  missionaries  was  elected  to  the 
bishopric  of  this  vast  field,  he  electrified  the  churches 
in  many  places  by  declaring  his  sober  hope  that  he 
might  live  to  see  the  time  when  there  would  be  ten 
thousand  heathen  converted  in  India  under  the 


CENTRAL  INDIA  CONFERENCE. 


115 


care  of  our  Church  in  a  shiglc  year.  Some  good 
people  who  heard  this  utterance  wondered  whether 
it  was  the  prophetic  utterance  of  an  apostle  of  God, 
or  the  passionate  cry  of  a  fanatic.  That  dilemma 
was  solved  years  ago  by  successes  transcending  the 
vision  of  the  seer.  In  my  preliminary  tour  of 
observation  in  Northern  India  it  was  my  great  priv- 
ilege to  see  rich  fruits  already  harvested,  and  amid 
the  ripening  fields  to  find  credible  indications  that 
many  thousands  of  raw  heathen  might  be  brought 
speedily,  and  with  fair  intelligence,  to  forsake  their 
idols  and  begin  a  new  life  with  their  faces  toward 
the  Cross,  and  with  public  profession  of  faith  in 
Christ  by  baptism  ;  if  only  we  could  provide  them 
(as  one  of  the  native  preachers  said  in  my  hearing) 
with  "  holders-up." 

This  explains  my  use  of  the  word  "  painful." 
My  soul  has  been  distressed  by  the  thought  that 
the  providence  and  Spirit  of  God,  in  answer  to  the 
prayers  sent  up  through  succeeding  generations  of 
faithful  sowing  and  very  scanty  reaping,  have  out- 
run the  faith  and  the  liberality  of  the  Church,  and 
have  made  your  riches  your  greatest  embarrass- 
ment. You  have  recently  observed  a  day  of  praj^er 
for  "  the  awakening  of  India  ;"  there  is  more  urgent 
need  of  prayer  for  the  awakening  of  America  to  the 
greatness  of  the  opportunity  and  the  duty  of  the 
hour. 

Since  I  came  to  India  I  have  heard  missionaries 
of  three  branches  of  the  Christian  Church  sadly 
admit  that,  after  a  great  many  years  of  diligent  and 


116      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

expensive  labor  in  the  educational  field  in  certain 
large  cities,  they  have  not  had  through  that  work  a 
single  convert ;  and  one  of  them  positively  declared 
that  even  two  or  three  conversions  would  speedily 
break  up  entirely  his  school  for  high-caste  natives. 
I  am  well  aware  that  our  work  has  reached  a  few 
persons  of  almost  every  caste,  but  I  am  profoundly 
thankful  that  it  has  effectually  reached  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  "outcasts;"  and  I  trust  that  from  that 
foundation  it  will  work  its  way  through  all  ranks  of 
society. 

Self-support. 
Grave  problems  confront  us  in  this  vast,  various, 
intensely  interesting  field,  which  ought  no  longer  to 
be  spoken  of  as  India  and  Malaysia,  but  as  South- 
ern Asia.  One  of  the  chief  of  these  is  the  question 
of  the  relation  of  self-support  to  the  contributions 
of  men  and  women  and  money  from  the  Church  in 
America.  No  doubt  if  India  is  ever  saved,  it  must 
under  God  be  saved  by  India.  America  can  never 
save  India.  England  can  never  save  India.  Yet 
help  must  be  given  until  Christianity  is  thoroughly 
established  in  every  part  of  the  land  ;  and  until  the 
power  of  self-support,  not  only  in  the  lowest  item 
of  pecuniary  contribution,  but  in  the  higher  mat- 
ters of  Christian  education,  of  developed  brains,  of 
holy  character,  and  of  the  power  of  wise  and  effec- 
tive and  permanent  ecclesiastical  self-government, 
shall  have  been  fully  reached.  How  best  to  move 
forward  toward  such  self-support  you  have  long 
considered.    At  the  recent  Annual  Conferences  it 


CENTRAL  INDIA  CONFERENCE. 


117 


has  been  with  me  a  matter  of  the  most  careful  in- 
quiry and  study.  Suggestions  relating  to  it,  orig- 
inating largely  with  Dr.  Goucher,  have  been  sent 
up  to  you  as  memorials  from  these  Conferences, 
and  I  am  sure  will  receive  your  most  careful  atten- 
tion, I  trust  some  conclusions  may  be  reached  by 
you  which,  while  immediately  and  largely  effective 
in  your  own  field,  will  not  in  any  degree  tend  to 
diminish,  but  rather  to  stimulate  and  augment,  the 
contributions  from  our  churches  in  America. 

Adaptations  of  Methodism. 
Few  things  in  India  have  impressed  me  more 
strongly  than  the  manifest  adaptation  of  Methodism 
to  the  educational  and  evangelistic  work  needed 
here.  Christians  of  other  Churches  than  ours  have 
observed  with  admiration  the  remarkable  ease  and 
efficiency  with  which  our  system  adjusts  itself  to 
the  peculiarities  of  the  most  diverse  peoples  in  all 
zones  and  among  all  races.  Having  originated,  and 
having  thus  far  secured  its  greatest  successes  among 
Anglo-Saxons,  on  shores  swept  by  the  freezing 
winds  of  the  North  Atlantic,  and  on  immense 
prairies  bound  for  half  the  year  in  chains  of  ice, 
Methodism  flourishes  just  as  well  where  mangoes 
blush  and  punkahs  wave.  From  the  East  and  West 
and  North  and  South  it  is  evermore  sending  up 
blood-washed  spirits  to  join  the  shining  ranks 
around  the  throne  of  God.  The  true  follower  of 
John  Wesley  is  not  he  who  gropes  in  the  dust  to 
find  his  very  footprints,  but  the  man  who  catches 


118      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


his  spirit  and  all-animating  purpose,  and  employs 
his  general  methods,  sagaciously  adapting  them  to 
ever-changing  needs.  Believing  this,  American 
Methodism  long  since  adjusted  its  methods  to  the 
conditions  of  a  rapidly-growing  continental  popula- 
tion, free  from  the  shackles  of  an  established 
Church. 

You  have  found  it  practicable  and  useful  to 
transplant  in  this  country  almost  every  particular 
institution  and  method  of  American  Methodism. 
You  have  the  episcopacy,  the  General  Conference, 
this  Central  Conference,  which  might  be  character- 
ized as  in  some  sense  a  revised,  abridged,  and,  let 
us  trust,  improved  edition  of  the  General  Confer- 
ence ;  Annual,  District,  and  Quarterly  Conferences  ; 
both  the  itinerant  and  the  local  ministry,  the  ex- 
horter  and  the  class  leader,  and  the  other  officers 
so  well  known  to  Methodism.  Some  of  these  in- 
stitutions and  offices  you  have  adjusted  to  the 
special  conditions  and  needs  of  the  people  among 
whom  you  work,  with  manifestly  excellent  results. 
In  particular,  your  enlargement  of  the  work  of  the 
District  Conferences,  and  appointment  of  pastor- 
teachers  and  of  the  leaders  of  the  daily  village 
prayers,  furnish  illustration  of  skillful  adaptation 
to  new  environments. 

Need  of  more  Episcopal  Supervision. 
While  the  results  already  realized  are  a  rich 
fruitage  of  the  labors  which  preceded  them,  and  an 
inspiration  for  the  workers  who  are  bearing  the 


CENTRAL  INDIA  CONFERENCE. 


119 


burdens  of  to-day,  they  are  also  an  earnest  of 
larger  ingatherings  which  must  come  in  multiplied 
millions  before  India  will  have  realized  her  redemp- 
tion. Standing,  as  we  do,  between  the  exceptional 
successes  of  the  past  and  the  limitless  opportunities 
of  the  immediate  future,  there  is  no  question  of 
greater  gravity  demanding  our  consideration  than 
what  modifications  of  our  economy  may  be  neces- 
sary to  provide  for  the  careful  supervision  of  the 
native  agencies  needed  to  furnish  instruction  and 
guidance  for  the  multitudes  willing  to  accept  the 
Gospel. 

No  words  of  mine  can  fitly  express  the  interest 
felt  by  American  Methodism,  and  especially  by 
your  Board  of  Bishops,  in  your  work  and  in  your 
success.  You  are  an  integral  and  notable  factor  in 
a  great  world  movement.  John  Wesley  prophet- 
ically said,  "  The  world  is  my  parish."  His  proph- 
ecy is  swiftly  becoming  history;  nowhere  more 
swiftly  than  right  here.  The  institution  of  the 
missionary  bishopric  in  this  region  was  meant  to 
make  this  wondrous  history  more  rapid.  In  taking 
that  action  the  Church  had  no  thought  of  holding 
you  off  at  arm's  length.  She  presses  you  to  her 
heart.  The  new  bishopric  was  made  "  coordinate  " 
with  the  old. 

To  some  extent,  however,  it  must  be  frankly  ad- 
mitted, the  close  bond  of  sympathy  and  interest 
with  the  Church  at  home  has  been  weakened  in 
consequence  of  the  cessation  of  the  old-time  bien- 
nial visits  of  the  general  superintendents.    No  one 


120      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


wislied  it  so  ;  all  regretted  it ;  and  the  General 
Missionary  Committee  in  1891  asked  the  General 
Conference  to  direct  the  renewal  of  such  official 
visitations.  It  was  felt  that  the  interests  of  a  field 
so  vast,  with  work  so  varied  and  so  rapidly  devel- 
oping and  extending,  needed  to  be  represented  to 
the  Church  on  the  platform,  through  the  press,  in 
the  Board  of  Managers,  and  especially  at  every 
meeting  of  the  General  Missionary  Committee,  by 
more  than  one  official  voice  ;  and  that  the  bond  of 
sympathy  between  India  and  America  could  be 
best  maintained  and  strengthened  by  the  careful 
reports  and  intelligent  pleadings  of  a  succession  of 
official  observers.  Therefore  am  I  here,  and  there- 
fore the  law  of  the  Church  provides  that  like  offi- 
cial visitations  shall  be  made  quadrennially. 

One  important  action  taken  by  the  Central  India 
Conference  at  its  last  session  furnishes  clear  indi- 
cation of  your  sense  of  the  manifest  need  of  more 
episcopal  supervision.  I  refer,  of  course,  to  the 
request  then  made  for  the  election  of  an  additional 
missionary  bishop.  The  notable  progress  secured 
since  that  time,  and  the  very  great,  I  may  even 
say  startling,  development  of  the  manifest  possi- 
bilities of  far  more  rapid  progress  in  the  near  fu- 
ture, render  that  need  still  more  urgent.  There  is 
no  one  of  the  bishops  of  our  Church  whose  respon- 
sibilities are  so  grave,  and  whose  duties  of  supervi- 
sion, in  view  of  the  swift  developments  sure  to  come 
in  Southern  Asia,  are  of  such  vast  and  far-reaching 
importance  as  those  of  your  resident  bishop. 


CENTRAL  INDIA  CONFERENCE. 


121 


The  last  General  Conference  gave  earnest  con- 
sideration to  the  question  of  the  increase  of  epis- 
copal supervision  necessary  in  this  immense  terri- 
tory, and  thought  it  wise  to  attempt  to  supply  that 
need  by  a  method  other  than  that  which  you  had 
suggested.  Few  questions  can  engage  the  atten- 
tion of  the  next  General  Conference  which  will 
require  greater  wisdom  than  this,  and  the  right 
solution  of  which  will  be  fraught  with  more  im- 
portant results  for  the  future  of  Methodism,  not 
only  in  Southern  Asia,  but  also  as  a  precedent  in 
other  mission  fields,  and  possibly  even  in  America 
itself.  I  know  you  will  join  me  in  the  fervent 
prayer  that  he  who  raised  up  Methodism,  and  has 
guided  its  course  from  the  beginning  till  now,  will 
give  wisdom  for  this  emergency. 

Now  the  God  of  peace,  that  brought  again  from 
the  dead  our  Lord  Jesus,  that  great  Shepherd  of 
the  sheep,  through  the  blood  of  the  everlasting 
covenant,  make  you  perfect  in  every  good  work  to 
do  his  will,  working  in  you  that  which  is  well 
pleasing  in  his  sight,  through  Jesus  Christ,  to 
whom  be  glory  forever  and  ever.  Amen. 


122      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 
Epworth  League  Extraordinary. 

THE  Central  Conference  of  India  is  a  unique 
institution  in  our  ecclesiastical  machinery,  a 
sort  of  miniature  General  Conference,  meeting  bi- 
ennially, consisting  of  delegates  from  six  Confer- 
ences, whose  territory  stretches  four  thousand 
miles  from  northwest  to  southeast,  and  eighteen 
hundred  miles  from  east  to  west,  covering  the 
whole  of  India,  and  also  Malaysia  as  far  south  as 
Singapore,  and  whose  work  is  carried  on  in  more 
than  a  score  of  languages  and  dialects. 

This  Conference  held  its  biennial  session  in  1898, 
beginning  January  20,  in  the  historic  city  of  Luck- 
now. 

Under  the  new  law  of  the  Church,  providing  for 
a  quadrennial  visitation  by  one  of  the  general 
superintendents,  in  joint  superintendency  with  the 
missionary  bishop,  this  Conference  had  for  the  first 
time  at  its  recent  session  two  presidents,  and  was 
also  favored  with  the  presence  of  another  visiting 
bishop  (Bishop  Joyce),  and  of  yet  another  of  the 
managers  of  our  Missionary  Society,  Rev.  Dr. 
Goucher.  Its  delegates  included  ministers  and 
laymen,  men  and  women,  who  were  elected  by  An- 
nual, Women's  and  District  Conferences,  the  total 
number  being  seventy. 


EPWORTH  LEAGUE  EXTRAORDINARY.  123 


The  unflagging  interest  awakened  by  the  dis- 
cussions in  the  daily  sessions  was  sustained,  and 
even  transcended,  by  the  inspiration  at  some  of 
tlie  special  evening  meetings,  no  one  of  which 
raised  the  great  audience  which  thronged  our  very 
spacious  Hindustani  church  to  a  higher  pitch  of 
missionary  zeal  and  religious  enthusiasm  than  the 
mass  meeting  held  in  the  interest  of  the  Epworth 
League. 

The  President  of  the  Epworth  League  for  South- 
ern Asia  is  the  Rev.  Dr.  E.  W.  Parker,  who  has  done 
signal  service  in  this  field  for  almost  forty  years, 
and  whose  sunny  smile  and  cheery  voice,  wise  and 
loving  spirit,  perennial  youth,  and  unfailing  self- 
abandonment  to  every  good  work,  have  won  for 
him  an  enviable  place  in  the  esteem  of  his  fellow- 
workers,  and  eminently  fit  him  for  inspiring  leader- 
ship in  this  new  movement,  which  is  getting  so 
strong  a  hold  in  India.  Among  the  younger  men 
whose  conspicuous  labors  for  the  League  gave 
them  prominent  places  on  the  program  was  Pre- 
siding Elder  F.  W.  Warne,  Secretary  of  the  Ep- 
worth League  for  Southern  Asia,  and  Presiding 
Elder  W.  A.  Mansell,  President  of  the  North  India 
Conference  Epworth  League,  the  latter  born  in  this 
country,  and  the  son  of  a  veteran  presiding  elder, 
who  was  also  present. 

The  keen  interest  and  high  enthusiasm  of  the 
occasion  were  kindled  chiefly  by  two  things :  the 
display  of  an  extraordinary  number  and  variety  of 
banners,  and  the  parts  taken  in  the  exercises  by 


124      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

native  Christians.  On  the  broad  and  lofty  front 
wall  of  the  church  were  hung  twenty-three  Epworth 
League  banners,  representing  work  done  by  the 
League  in  twenty-four  languages  and  dialects,  one 
banner  bearing  two  inscriptions  :  Urdu,  Ganwari, 
Kumauni,  Kanarese,  Tamil,  Telugu,  Bhotiya,  Guj. 
rati,  Nepali,  English,  Bengali,  Marathi,  Garhvvali, 
Hindu,  Marwari,  Burmese,  Hindustani,  Romanized 
Hindu,  Chinese,  Fuelling  Chinese,  Punjabi,  Malay, 
and  Japanese.  Probably  no  eye  but  God's  could 
read  all  the  inscriptions  on  these  banners ;  but  the 
sight  of  them,  and  the  thoughts  they  incidentally 
suggested,  moistened  many  eyes  and  melted  many 
hearts.  The  Epworth  League  meetings  in  this 
country  have  often  been  graced  by  several  banners, 
but  never  before  by  so  large  a  number.  The  dis- 
play of  so  great  a  collection  was  planned  months 
in  advance,  and  made  more  complete  because  of  a 
request  preferred  by  Dr.  Goucher,  to  whom  the 
entire  collection  was  presented  at  the  close  of  the 
meeting ;  it  is  therefore  likely  to  inspire  great 
Epworth  League  and  missionary  meetings  in 
America.  Among  the  inscriptions  upon  them 
were  the  following  :  "  Look  up  to  Christ ;  help  the 
depressed."  "Look  up;  give  a  hand."  "Lord 
Jesus,  save."  "  Pray  and  fight."  "  Look  up  and 
not  down ;  look  forward  and  not  back."  "  Sin  is 
your  enemy ;  keep  away  from  it ;  keep  goodness 
at  your  side." 

The  program  included  individual  and  concert 
recitations  of  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Ten  Com- 


EPWORTH  LEAGUE  EXTRAORDINARY.  125 


mandmcnts,  the  Apostles'  Creed,  and  the  Twenty- 
third  Psalm,  given  with  the  utmost  readiness  and 
accuracy  by  children  who  one  year  ago  were  ap- 
parently hopelessly  sunk  in  the  deep  degradation 
of  heathenism,  but  to  whom  the  awful  scourge  of 
the  famine  opened  a  door  of  hope.  Now  they  are 
well-fed  and  clothed,  and  faithfully  taught  by 
Christian  men  and  women  ;  and  not  a  few  of  them 
give  evidence  of  a  genuine,  personal  religious  ex- 
perience. 

As  we  looked  on  them  and  thought  of  the  many 
thousands  thus  rescued  by  Christian  love,  and  tried 
to  cast  the  horoscope  of  their  future  in  this  world 
and  the  next,  and  that  of  the  great  army  of  native 
children  sure  to  follow  them,  and  saw,  with  the 
clear  eye  of  a  faith  warranted  by  experience  in  this 
land,  scores  of  preachers  and  hundreds  of  teachers 
and  thousands  of  faithful  disciples,  and  that  all 
these  are  only  the  seed  of  the  vast  India  Metho- 
dism which  is  yet  to  be — no  wonder  our  eyes  swam 
and  that  these  living  banners  diverted  attention 
from  the  silken  ones  suspended  above  their  heads. 

There  were  three  hymns  in  English  printed  on 
the  program,  which  were  sung  with  great  spirit. 
One  of  them,  written  for  the  occasion,  was  the  fol- 
lowing : 

VICTORY  WITH  JESUS. 

"  Victory  for  Jesus  !  "    They're  coming  right  along  ! 
Epworth  Leaguers  to  the  front,  ten  hundred  thousand  strong. 
Ready  for  the  battle  of  the  right  against  the  wrong, 
Marching  to  victory  with  Jesus. 


126      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


Chorus : 

"  Look  Up  !  Lift  Up  !" — our  motto  and  our  song ; 
"  Look  Up  !  Lift  Up  !" — and  pass  the  word  along, 
Till  old  Earth's  circumference  'round,  we've  righted  every 
wrong, 

Marching  to  victory  with  Jesus. 

Many  are  the  enemies  with  whom  we  have  to  fight. 
But  our  cause  will  surely  triumph — 'tis  the  cause  of  God  and 
right. 

And  going  forth  we  battle  in  our  glorious  Leader's  might. 
Fighting  for  victory  with  Jesus. 

Idols  of  the  heathen  and  the  idols  at  our  door. 
Secret  sins,  intemperance,  and  their  kindred  by  the  score, 
We  must  banish  each  and  all  from  every  Christian  shore, 
Praying  for  victory  with  Jesus. 

"  Looking  unto  Jesus,"  we  are  present  in  the  fray, 
"  Lifting  up  for  Jesus,"  we  shall  see  the  glorious  day. 
When  this  world's  dominions  all  shall  own  Messiah's  sway, 
Joyful  in  victory  with  Jesus." 

We  had  also  characteristic  native  music,  which 
evoked  alternate  laughter  and  tears.  Our  mission- 
aries have  wisely  utilized  the  native  airs  and  in- 
struments. Some  of  the  most  effective  hymns  are 
set  to  tunes  familiar  to  the  people  in  heathen  fes- 
tivals. Perhaps  the  most  popular  of  \.\\esQ  bhaja7is, 
certainly  the  one  I  have  oftenest  heard,  is  "  Jai, 
Prabhu  Yisu,  jai,  jai,  jai,"  "Victory  to  Jesus,  vic- 
tory, victory,  victory,"  which  in  camp  meetings 
and  other  large  and  enthusiastic  assemblies  often 
ends  with  the  concerted  shout  of  "Jai,  jai,"  by  the 
whole  congregation,  very  much  like  our  "hurrah  " 
at  a  political  meeting.    This  was  rendered  by  the 


EPWORTH  LEAGUE  EXTRAORDINARY.  127 


Epworth  League  and  the  large  audience  on  this 
occasion  with  tremendous  gusto,  presiding  elders 
almost  splitting  their  throats  to  help  it  on,  and,  I 
must  frankly  admit,  bishops  not  altogether  silent. 

At  the  chief  temple  in  Calcutta  for  the  worship 
of  the  shockingly  obscene  and  cruel  goddess  Kali, 
for  whom  Calcutta  is  named,  when  the  head  of  a 
goat  or  bullock  is  struck  off  at  a  single  blow  by  the 
great  sharp  ax  of  the  sacrificing  priest,  the  wild 
crowd  of  worshipers  gather  round  and  scream  out 
many  times,  "  Kali,  jai !  Kali,  jai !  "  Our  mission- 
aries believe  with  Luther  that  "  the  devil  ought 
not  to  have  all  the  good  tunes,"  and  so  when  the 
heathen  drop  "  Kali  "  they  teach  them  still  to  keep 
"jai." 

The  wife  of  one  of  our  missionaries  has  prepared 
a  book  of  bhajaiis,  that  is,  heathen  tunes  set  to 
genuinely  Christian  hymns,  with  repetitious  and 
moving  choruses,  some  of  which  have  affectingly 
reminded  me  of  the  old-time  camp-meeting  songs 
which  thrilled  and  helped  transform  my  boyhood  ; 
and  these  are  manifestly  helping  on  the  swing  of 
conquest  which  has  already  made  Methodism  God's 
saving  message  to  more  than  one  hundred  thousand 
souls  in  India. 

Some  of  the  instrumental  music  provoked  more 
laughter  and  less  tears  ;  but  it  also  has  manifestly 
its  own  place  and  power.  It  proceeded  from  a 
native  band  of  eight  men,  all  seated  on  the  floor, 
having  rude,  discordant,  indescribable  instruments, 
which  they  shook  or  sawed  or  pounded  with  all 
9 


128      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


their  might,  accompanying  the  crash  and  jingle 
with  weird  singing  full  of  intense  religious  senti- 
ment. All  these  men  were  Christians,  and  three  of 
them  local  preachers.  They  reminded  me  of  the 
Salvation  Army.  Their  enthusiasm  rose  to  such  a 
pitch  that  they  seemed  likely  to  keep  on  all  night 
if  the  stalwart  presiding  officer  had  not  put  on  the 
brakes  by  threatening  gestures  and  by  pounding 
the  altar  rail. 

I  have  carefully  considered  the  subject  of  this 
wild  native  music,  and  have  talked  with  our  trusted 
leaders  about  it,  and  have  reached  the  clear  opinion 
that  our  wonderfully  flexible  Methodism  has  a 
place  for  this  battalion  in  our  army  of  conquest 
in  the  most  important  missionary  field  of  our 
Church  anywhere  on  the  face  of  the  globe. 

The  final  announcement  on  the  program  was : 
"  Five-minute  speeches  from  our  visitors."  The  re- 
markable and  indescribable  impression  made  by 
the  meeting  was  manifest  in  the  fact  that  the  utter- 
ances, not  only  of  the  three  American  visitors,  but 
also  of  the  resident  bishop,  who  has  long  been  ac- 
customed to  somewhat  similar  scenes,  were  so 
choked  by  emotion  that  speaking  was  almost  im- 
possible, all  of  them  feeling  that  reverent  silence  or 
shouts  of  praise  would  befit  the  hour  better  than 
any  words  that  could  be  framed.  The  exercises 
had  opened  a  wide  rift  through  the  dense  gloom 
of  heathenism,  and  had  marvelously  revealed  the 
magnificent  possibilities  of  the  immediate  future. 


A  GENUINE  BONANZA. 


129 


CHAPTER  XVII. 
A  Genuine  Bonanza* 

SOME  twenty  years  ago  a  Methodist  preacher, 
who  had  been  long  studying  various  mission 
fields,  became  convinced  that  one  of  the  most  urgent 
needs  in  India  was  a  thoroughly  organized  system 
of  primary  schools  at  the  very  base  of  the  social 
fabric,  among  the  teeming  millions  of  the  lowest 
caste  and  the  "  outcasts."  God  had  blessed  him  and 
his  wife  with  substance  beyond  their  domestic  needs ; 
and  they  were  quite  accustomed,  after  careful  con- 
sideration, to  the  consecration  of  a  large  part  of  their 
income  to  the  spread  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ ; 
being  no  less  interested  in  the  progress  of  that 
kingdom  among  the  antipodes  than  at  their  very 
doors.  Tiiey,  therefore,  set  apart  a  sum  of  money, 
intended  to  be  not  less  than  five  thousand  dollars 
a  year,  for  the  beginning  and  prosecution  of  school 
work  in  India. 

This  was  the  seed  of  "  the  Goucher  Schools,"  a 
designation  which  I  have  heard  very  many  times 
since  I  came  to  India,  often  uttered  with  glowing 
countenance  and  moistened  eyes. 

This  system  of  schools  was  founded,  and  has 
been  maintained  for  sixteen  years,  by  the  Rev. 
John  F.  Goucher,  D.D.,  of  Baltimore.  After  de- 
termining on  the  general  plan  of  this  new  work  he 
made  application  successively  to  the   Board  of 


130      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

Education  and  to  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  to  learn  if  either 
would  be  willing  to  undertake  the  care  of  the  funds 
and  the  general  supervision  of  the  work.  Neither 
thought  it  best  to  do  so  ;  and  he  thereupon  wrote, 
fully  detailing  his  purpose  and  plans,  to  the  Rev. 
Dr.  E.  W.  Parker,  one  of  our  veteran  and  most 
efficient  presiding  elders  in  Northern  India.  By 
one  of  those  curious  coincidences  which  are  God's 
frequent  method  of  leading  his  disciples  in  answer 
to  prayer,  this  letter  was  passed  in  mid-ocean  by  an 
article  from  the  pen  of  Dr.  Parker  to  our  religious 
press  in  America  on  the  same  subject,  urgently 
setting  forth  the  same  great  need. 

The  complete  scheme  at  first  drawn  out  by  Dr. 
Goucher  has  been  carried  out  with  scarcely  any 
change  until  now.  Its  chief  features  were  these  : 
all  the  schools  to  be  taught  by  Christian  teachers  ; 
every  session  to  be  opened  with  the  reading  of  the 
Bible,  the  singing  of  a  Christian  hymn,  and  a 
prayer — all  in  the  vernacular ;  reading,  writing, 
arithmetic,  the  Catechism  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church  and  the  singing  of  Christian  hymns 
to  be  taught  daily  in  every  school. 

In  1882  fifty  primary  vernacular  schools  were 
accordingly  opened  among  the  lowest  caste  or  out- 
cast people  about  Moradabad.  In  1884  the  central 
school  at  Moradabad  was  raised  to  the  grade  of  a 
high  school ;  a  compound  of  about  three  acres  was 
purchased,  and  suitable  buildings  were  erected  for 
boarding  and  taking  care  of  the  boys.  One  hundred 


A  GENUINE  BONANZA. 


131 


scholarships  were  founded,  entitling  the  boys  from 
the  lower  schools  who  gave  evidence  of  the  greatest 
ability  and  best  acquirements  to  free  tuition,  board, 
and  clothing  until  they  should  be  ready  for  the 
government  entrance  examination.  These  scholar- 
ships generally  cover  a  period  of  nine  years ;  from 
twelve  to  sixteen  dollars  a  year  being  found  suffi- 
cient for  the  entire  support  of  each  boy. 

In  1885  fifty  more  schools  were  established  (the 
whole  number  was  afterward  increased  to  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty),  half  to  be  for  girls  ;  and  no  boys' 
school  was  to  be  continued  in  any  village  unless  the 
girls  of  that  village  were  also  sent  to  be  taught  in  the 
girls'  school.  This  provision,  a  novel  one  for  India, 
grew  out  of  the  founder's  deep  conviction  that  the 
Christian  family  is  the  divinely  intended  unit  for  the 
Church  and  for  an  enlightened  and  free  nation.  The 
effect  of  it  has  been  that  from  the  ranks  of  the 
students  who  have  been  taught  in  these  schools 
more  than  two  hundred  Christian  families  are  now 
established  every  year.  The  number  of  scholar- 
ships was  also  increased,  provision  being  made 
for  the  more  advanced  teaching,  and  also  for  the 
board  and  care  of  the  scholarship  girls  in  the  school 
of  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of 
Moradabad. 

For  several  years  past  there  have  been  about 
three  thousand  children  in  daily  attendance  on 
these  various  schools,  which  have  won  not  only  the 
highest  approbation  of  our  own  missionaries,  but 
also  that  of  well-informed  missionaries  in  other 


132     FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


denominations  ;  missionaries  of  the  Presbyterian 
Cliurcli  and  of  the  Church  of  England  having  several 
times  declared  these  schools  to  constitute  "the  best 
missions  in  India." 

They  are  also  said  to  have  furnished  in  large 
part  the  stimulus  and  support  to  the  great  revival 
movement  of  recent  years  in  the  Northwest  Prov- 
inces and  Oudh  ;  having  supplied  Christian  instruc- 
tors, pastors,  subpastors,  pastor-teachers,  leaders, 
and  Bible  women  for  the  work.  About  four  hun- 
dred of  the  active  workers  of  these  classes,  now 
scattered  all  over  India,  were  taught  and  converted 
in  these  schools.  We  found  them  wherever  we 
went.  In  the  mcla  at  Fatehganj  there  were  fifty- 
four  former  students  from  these  schools  present  as 
workers  and  as  members  of  the  Pilibhit  District 
Conference ;  at  the  Budaon  mcla,  forty-seven  ;  at 
the  Hathras  camp  meeting,  sixty-three.  Just  about 
one  half  of  the  students  in  the  Bareilly  Theological 
Seminary  at  the  present  time,  and  for  some  years 
past,  had  their  earlier  training  in  these  schools. 
Forty-three  of  the  eighty-four  now  there,  twelve  of 
this  year's  graduating  class  of  twenty-four,  and 
eleven  of  last  year's  graduating  class  of  twenty- 
three,  were  taught  and  converted  in  these  schools; 
as  were  also  fifteen  ministers  of  the  Northwest 
India  Annual  Conference. 

That  this  work,  begun  at  the  very  bottom  of 
society,  is  steadily  pushing  up  into  the  ranks 
above,  is  manifest  by  the  following  figures  :  of  the 
scholarship   boys  now  in  the  Moradabad  High 


A  GENUINE  BONANZA. 


133 


School,  thirty  are  sons  of  teachers ;  twenty-six,  of 
farmers;  seven,  of  night  watchmen;  nine,  of  serv- 
ants; four,  of  weavers;  five,  of  shoemakers;  thir- 
teen, of  carpenters,  wool  workers,  and  other  classes. 
Though  founded  among  the  low  caste,  some  of  the 
schools  have  as  many  as  seven  castes  represented 
in  daily  attendance,  and  many  of  their  former 
scholars  are  now  filling  positions  far  more  honorable 
and  more  lucrative  than  were  held  by  any  of  their 
ancestors. 

The  directly  religious  result  of  this  school  work 
is  manifest  in  the  conversion  of  many  thousands  of 
natives.  The  five  presiding  elders  in  whose  dis- 
tricts the  most  of  these  schools  are  located,  reported 
three  years  ago  that,  through  the  schools  and 
through  the  labors  of  the  preachers  and  evan- 
gelists who  had  been  converted  in  them,  more  than 
twenty-seven  thousand  natives  have  been  brought 
to  Christ. 

The  evidences  of  the  progress  of  this  school  work 
and  of  the  enthusiastic  interest  felt  in  it,  alike  by 
our  missionaries  and  by  the  natives  whom  it  has 
immediately  touched,  confronted  Dr.  Goucher  and 
myself  in  our  first  month's  tour  in  Northern  India 
before  the  sessions  of  the  Annual  Conferences  began. 
At  several  railroad  stations,  in  one  or  two  instances 
very  early  in  the  morning,  "Goucher  Schools" 
were  drawn  up  to  greet  us  with  waving  banners 
and  happy  songs,  and  to  look  upon  the  sunny  face 
of  the  man  whom  thousands  will  always  think  of  as, 
under  God,  their  deliverer  from  the  thraldom  of 


134     FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

heathenism.  At  one  station  we  were  met  by  a 
sohtary  caller,  a  native  minister  who  had  walked 
twenty-one  miles  to  see  Dr.  Goucher.  His  very 
low  salaam  and  glowing  face  and  tearful  eyes  as  he 
said  "  I  am  your  servant,  you  are  my  saviour,"  fur- 
nished one  among  the  multitudinous  incidents 
which  led  the  founder  of  these  schools  to  feel  that 
the  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  bestowed  upon 
them  is  by  far  the  best  investment  he  has  ever 
made.  One  old-time  college  friend  of  his,  moved 
by  his  example,  established,  a  few  years  ago,  a 
system  of  similar  schools  on  the  same  general  plan  ; 
and  the  results,  in  proportion  to  their  number,  are 
just  as  notably  successful.  Who  that  reads  this 
careful  and  dispassionate  statement  of  marvelous 
facts  will  see  in  it  God's  summons,  "  Go  and  do 
thou  likewise?  " 


SOME  INDIA  FRUITS. 


135 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 
Some  India  Fruits. 

LET  not  this  heading  quicken  any  physical  appe- 
tite, for  I  am  not  about  to  speak  of  the  novel 
and  delicious  native  fruits  which  delight  the  palate 
of  the  foreign  tourist,  such  as  the  mango,  mango- 
steen,  custard  apple,  durian,  hair  fruit,  and  papaya  ; 
but  of  the  "  fruits  of  the  Spirit  "  manifested  in  the 
lives  of  the  native  converts. 

St.  Peter  lays  down  the  fundamental  principle  of 
Gospel  propagandism  in  these  words :  "  For  so  is  the 
will  of  God,  that  with  well-doing  ye  may  put  to 
silence  the  ignorance  of  foolish  men."  No  wise 
missionary  expects  any  large  success  until  the  old 
Gospel  demonstrates  its  ever-new  power  and  uni- 
versal adaptation  by  conspicuous  fruits  in  character 
and  in  life  among  the  people  to  whom  he  is  sent. 
Such  fruits  in  ample  measure  have  vindicated  and 
inspired  our  work  in  India.  I  can  give  only  a  few 
specimens. 

One  such  illustration  of  intellectual  and  spiritual 
manhood  grown  on  heathen  soil — to  which  I  have 
referred  in  other  chapters — is  Hasan  Raza  Khan,* 
Presiding  Elder  of  the  Kasganj  District  of  the 
Northwest  India  Conference.  I  name  him  here 
again  in  order  to  record  a  single  fact  illustrative  of 


*See  pages  159  and  162. 


136      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


his  habitual  spirit  of  consecration  to  his  one  work, 
as  stated  by  Dr.  Goucher. 

"  He  isHving  on  forty  rupees  (about  thirteen  dol- 
lars) a  month,  and  trusting  the  people  of  his  district 
to  give  it.  He  is  a  man  among  men,  respected  by 
foreigners  and  natives  alike.  Because  of  his  intel- 
ligence and  influence  he  was  appointed  one  of  the 
Board  of  Commissioners  of  her  majesty's  govern- 
ment for  the  zillah  in  which  he  lives.  Appreciating 
his  ability  and  integrity,  the  Board  of  Commission- 
ers said  to  him  one  day :  '  We  have  chosen  you  as 
secretary  to  this  board.  Your  work  shall  be  limited 
to  five  hours  per  day ;  we  will  give  you  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty-five  rupees  per  month '  (more 
than  three  times  what  he  was  getting)  '  and  the 
position  will  bring  you  large  influence. '  He 
promptly  replied,  without  the  slightest  change  of 
countenance,  '  I  am  secretary  to  the  Lord  Jesus, 
and  I  cannot  accept  any  other  office.'  That  is  an 
illustration  of  the  power  of  God  to  so  transform  a 
Mohammedan's  heart  that  he  is  able  to  account  the 
reproach  of  Christ  greater  riches  than  the  treasures 
of  India." 

When  I  was  at  the  Fatehganj  District  Confer- 
ence I  saw  indications  of  the  rich  fruit  of  the  work 
under  the  care  of  another  presiding  elder,  whose 
life  abounds  in  "  facts  stranger  than  fiction,"  the 
account  of  which  so  magnifies  the  grace  of  God  re- 
vealed in  India  that  I  asked  Dr.  E.  W.  Parker  to 
furnish  me  its  chief  events  in  writing,  which  he  did, 
as  follows : 


SOME  INDIA  FRUITS. 


137 


"  Abraham  Solomon  is  a  Jew.  By  some  mis- 
fortune in  the  transportation  of  goods  from  India 
through  the  wild  mountain  passes  into  Afghanistan 
he  lost  all  his  property.  In  this  condition  he  wan- 
dered to  Moradabad,  and  providentially  fell  in  with 
Rev.  Zahur  ul  Haqq,  who  had  lately  been  converted 
from  Mohammedanism.  The  conversation  between 
this  new  convert  to  Christianity  and  this  Jew  nat- 
urally turned  upon  religious  subjects.  The  Mo- 
hammedan convert  had  just  given  up  one  book, 
the  Koran,  which  claims  to  be  a  part  of  God's 
revelation,  because  it  did  not  agree  in  any  respect 
with  the  former  books  ;  but  when  he  met  a  man 
who  did  not  receive  the  Gospel  either  he  was 
greatly  disturbed.  In  his  new  faith  he  could  not 
see  how  the  Old  Testament  could  meet  our  de- 
mands for  salvation  without  the  New  Testament, 
hence  earnest  discussion  took  place  between  these 
two  men. 

"  Brother  Zahur  ul  Haqq  said  to  me  one  day: 

"  '  I  think  I  could  get  that  Jew  converted  if  I 
could  get  him  something  to  do,  so  that  he  would 
remain  with  us  for  a  time.' 

"  Learning  that  he  was  an  excellent  Hebrew 
scholar,  I  made  work  for  him  by  engaging  him  to 
help  me  to  review  my  Hebrew  for  a  few  weeks,  and 
before  the  engagement  was  over  the  Jew  was  con- 
vinced that  Jesus  was  the  Messiah. 

"  After  his  conversion  he  was  soon  convinced 
that  his  work  was  to  be  the  preaching  of  this  Mes- 
siah.   Hence  he  gave  up  all  thought  of  his  business 


138      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


plans,  and  studied  to  prepare  himself  for  his  new 
work. 

"After  a  time  he  married  a  very  excellent  Hin- 
dustani woman,  and  after  some  years  of  experience 
in  the  work  he  was  appointed  to  Fatehganj  where 
you  met  him.  Very  little  work  had  been  ac- 
complished there.  There  was  a  little  school  and 
there  were  a  very  few  converts  in  the  country 
around.  He  commenced  his  work  thus  almost 
alone  in  the  midst  of  a  very  large  field. 

"  As  his  presiding  elder  I  said  to  him  at  the  be- 
ginning of  one  year:  'You  will  not  accomplish 
much  in  a  great  field  by  working  in  a  general  way 
all  over  the  field  without  any  special  object  in  view. 
My  advice  is  to  select  for  yourself  some  special 
field,  which  you  can  cultivate  carefully  until  it 
brings  forth  fruit.  If  you  visit  a  village  and  the 
people  receive  you  kindly  and  show  a  real  interest 
in  your  message,  consider  that  to  be  a  special  open- 
ing for  your  work,  and  go  to  that  village  over  and 
over,  making  friends  and  teaching  the  word.' 

"At  my  next  visit  to  him,  I  asked,  '  Have  you 
selected  a  special  work,  as  I  suggested?' 

"'Yes,'  he  replied,  '  I  have  selected  twenty-two 
villages  where  the  people  have  received  me  kindly 
and  listened  gladly  to  the  word,  and  I  am  specially 
working  in  these  villages.' 

"  I  smiled  at  the  size  of  this  '  special  field,'  and, 
noticing  the  smile,  he  replied  with  great  earnest- 
ness : 

" '  Remember  what  I  say,  I  will  not  cease  work- 


SOME  INDIA  FRUITS. 


139 


ing  in  these  villages  until  I  have  converts  in  every- 
one.' 

"  He  went  on  with  his  work,  and  the  first  time  I 
asked  about  the  villages  he  said  he  had  converts  in 
seven  of  them.  Then  I  was  called  home  to  Amer- 
ica, but  on  my  return,  the  first  time  I  met  Brother 
Solomon  I  asked  : 

"  '  How  about  the  twenty-two  villages?* 
" '  There  are  converts  in  eighteen  of  them,'  he 
replied. 

"At  the  Quarterly  Conference  I  noticed  that  we 
had  converts  from  among  the  Brahmans,  the  Tha- 
kurs,  and  several  other  castes  of  the  Hindus,  down 
to  the  very  lowest  of  the  outcasts.  These  people 
had  never  come  together  before.  They  had  been 
converted  in  their  own  villages.  For  the  first  time 
the  Brahmans  seemed  to  realize  that  they  were 
connected  with  a  community  made  up  of  all  kinds 
and  classes  of  people.  I  thought  to  myself,  '  How 
can  these  classes  be  brought  together  to  be  one 
without  confusion?'  And  all  through  the  Quar- 
terly Meeting,  as  one  after  another  spoke,  and  our 
high-caste  brethren  seemed  to  be  more  and  more 
disturbed,  my  excitement  increased.  I  noticed  also 
that  Brother  Abraham  was  very  anxious.  At  the 
close  of  the  meeting,  however,  the  last  '  amen  '  had 
hardly  been  said,  when  Brother  Abraham  said  in  a 
loud  voice : 

"  '  Brethren,  dinner  is  all  ready ;  my  wife  has 
prepared  dinner  to-day  for  everybody,  and  we  will 
all  go  out  immediately  to  dinner.' 


140      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

"  I  noticed  that  by  some  means  the  outside  doors 
of  the  schooh'ooms,  where  our  meeting  was  held, 
were  closed,  and  the  only  way  of  exit  was  through 
the  rooms  of  Brother  Abraham.  So  all  went  to- 
gether and  gathered  around  the  large  mat  spread 
with  a  bountiful  dinner,  and  ate  together.  There 
could  be  no  caste  after  this  public  eating  together, 
and  the  difficult  problem  was  at  once  solved.  There 
has  never  been  any  caste  difficulty  in  that  Christian 
community  since.  I  mention  this,  as  it  shows  the 
wisdom  of  this  man  in  his  work. 

"  While  Brother  Solomon  was  securing  his  con- 
verts in  the  twenty-two  villages,  God  gave  him  suc- 
cess in  a  great  many  other  places  also,  so  that  at 
the  end  of  one  year  there  were  converts  in  just  one 
hundred  villages.  Class  leaders  were  appointed  for 
every  village,  so  that  we  had  one  hundred  class 
leaders. 

"  After  one  more  successful  year  Brother  Solo- 
mon, who  had  really  made  for  himself  a  district, 
was  appointed  presiding  elder.  The  work  is  now 
carried  on  in  five  hundred  and  fifty-nine  different 
villages,  and  the  converts  have  increased  to  six 
thousand  nine  hundred  and  fifty-five." 

I  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  two  men  yet  to  be 
named  in  this  chapter,  and  to  learn  the  salient  facts 
about  them,  thus  vividly  stated  in  an  address  by  Dr. 
Goucher : 

"  Samuel  Tupper  is  the  pastor  of  a  circuit  at 
Hardoi.  His  ancestors  belonged  to  the  scavenger, 
or  lowest  caste,  and  SQ  he  was  doomed  by  the  caste 


SOME  INDIA  FRUITS. 


141 


laws  to  be  a  scavenger.  There  was  no  power  on 
earth  which  could  have  caused  him  to  rise  out  of 
his  caste  and  become  anything  but  a  scavenger; 
but  there  was  a  power  in  heaven  which  could  trans- 
form and  elevate  him.  A  few  years  ago  he  was 
running  around  clad  in  the  somewhat  inadequate 
folds  of  a  single  string,  worn  for  protection  against 
'  the  evil  eye  ; '  for  the  majority  of  the  children  of 
his  caste,  until  they  are  five  or  six  years  old,  are 
usually  clad  in  nothing  but  their  complexion,  except 
occasionally  when  they  wear  a  smile.  He  was 
brought  into  one  of  our  schools  and  showed  himself 
eager  and  apt  to  learn.  He  went  from  form  to 
form  ;  passed  through  the  high  school  and  went  to 
the  theological  school.  He  was  graduated  there 
relatively  an  educated  man  with  a  cultured  intellect 
and  great  consecration. 

"  I  have  been  frequently  impressed  with  the  fact 
that  many  of  these  India  Christians  possess  four 
things  directly  the  gift  of  God  :  they  have  a  per- 
sonal experience ;  they  know  God,  and  they  know 
that  they  know  him  ;  they  have  a  personal  commis- 
sion— God  always  gives  a  commission  to  every  per- 
son to  whom  he  gives  an  experience — they  have  a 
fixed  purpose  to  accomplish  their  commission,  and 
any  man  who  does  not  have  a  purpose  to  persist- 
ently pursue  his  commission  loses  both  his  experi- 
ence and  his  commission  ;  and  they  have  success. 
Because  their  purpose  keeps  their  effort  in  line 
with  God's  commission  he  crowns  their  lives  with 
success. 


142      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


"  Samuel  Tupper  was  sent  to  Hardoi  to  open 
Christian  work  there.  That  zillah  is  forty  miles 
square,  and  contains  about  nine  hundred  thousand 
native  heathen.  When  he  went  to  the  bazaar  he 
might  tell  the  venders  what  he  wanted,  but  then 
he  had  to  put  down  his  basket  and  step  back  while 
the  man  put  into  it  what  he  pleased.  Then  the 
price  was  told  him,  and  Tupper  would  lay  his 
money  down  and  walk  off  again.  Though  he  was 
superior  to  any  man  in  all  that  zillah — superior  in 
intelligence,  in  culture,  and  in  character — yet  he  had 
been  born  of  a  scavenger,  and  the  bazaar  men 
would  not  touch  even  money  while  Tupper  touched 
it.  It  is  a  serious  matter  when  the  average  man 
thinks  money  is  too  polluted  to  be  touched.  He 
found  plenty  of  work  among  the  people  of  his  own 
caste  to  keep  him  happily  occupied.  He  lived 
among  them,  and  taught  them  by  example  as  well 
as  precept.  After  a  while  the  bazaar  men  would 
say :  '  Tupper,  you  need  not  walk  away ;  you  are 
not  like  others  of  your  caste ;  we  will  take  the 
money  from  your  hand.'  Later,  on  stormy  days, 
when  there  was  not  much  business  doing,  the  bazaar 
men  would  say:  'Tupper,  sit  down,  and  tell  us 
what  you  are  teaching  these  people.  Everybody 
who  comes  under  your  influence  improves  in  clean- 
liness and  becomes  reliable.'  Then,  as  they  had 
invited  him,  he  would  preach  in  the  bazaar  Christ 
and  the  resurrection. 

"  Tupper  had  the  third  blessing.  We  have  heard 
a  great  deal  about  the  first  blessing,  so  called;  that 


SOME  INDIA  FRUITS. 


143 


is,  the  blessing  of  justification.  We  have  heard  a 
great  deal  about  the  second  blessing,  so  called ; 
that  is,  the  blessing  of  sanctification.  Some  people 
try  to  get  the  second  blessing  before  they  get  the 
first ;  but  it  never  comes  that  way.  Some  get  the 
first  so  thoroughly  that  those  who  have  not  been 
told  to  the  contrary  never  know  they  do  not  have 
both.  But  the  third  blessing  is  the  rarest  of  them 
all.  Sometimes  it  precedes  the  first  and  second, 
sometimes  it  comes  after  them,  and  very  frequently 
it  does  not  come  at  all  in  this  life.  It  is  the  bless- 
ing of  common  sense.  Tupper  had  the  grace  of 
God  working  with  this  great  blessing  of  common 
sense.  He  did  not  try  to  resist  the  inevitable.  He 
did  not  say,  '  I  am  as  good  as  you  are,  and  you  must 
treat  me  as  I  think  I  ought  to  be  treated.'  He 
knew  his  work,  and  he  knew  his  Lord.  He  knew 
he  was  not  set  for  his  own  defense,  but  to  do  the 
work  of  God.  He  accepted  the  conditions  within 
which  he  found  himself,  and  magnified  God  by  being 
a  son  of  peace,  and  the  grace  of  God  made  the  dark 
lines  in  his  environment  furnish  the  opportunities 
in  which  the  high  lights  of  his  patient  service  shone 
most  gloriously. 

"In  1890  the  British  government  made  careful 
inquiries  to  find  some  one  who  was  sufificiently  well 
educated,  and  who  was  thoroughly  reliable,  to  take 
the  census  in  that  zillah.  Many  said,  *  If  you  can 
get  Tupper  to  accept  the  office  the  work  will  be 
well  done.'    He  was  appointed,  and  that  made  it 

his  duty  to  go  into  the  home  of  every  Brahman  and 
10 


144      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

ask  him,  among  other  things,  how  many  daughters 
he  had.  The  queen  herself  could  not  have  asked  a 
question  more  confusing  to  caste  prejudice. 

"  Then  there  is  Joseph  Jordan.  He  did  not  go 
through  the  theological  school,  but  went  through 
the  college,  and  is  a  teacher.  For  two  years  in 
succession  every  student  whom  he  sent  up  to  the 
government  examinations  from  the  Moradabad 
High  School,  where  he  is  second  head  master, 
passed.  This  caused  quite  a  sensation  among  the 
Brahman  and  Mohammedan  teachers;  so  they  had 
large  posters  printed  setting  forth  that  Jordan  was 
the  son  of  a  scavenger;  that  if  he  should  correct 
one  of  the  high-caste  boys,  it  would  pollute  him  ; 
and  if  high-caste  parents  subjected  their  children  to 
his  influence  they  would  be  in  danger  of  the  wrath 
of  the  gods ;  and  many  other  such  things.  They 
had  these  posted  all  over  the  city,  and  when  Jor- 
dan went  to  school  the  next  morning  he  saw  on  the 
two  doorposts,  at  the  entrance  of  his  school,  these 
posters  confronting  him,  as  they  did  all  the  scholars 
that  entered.  He  consulted  with  one  of  our  mis- 
sionaries as  to  what  action  he  should  take,  and  was 
told  :  '  You  are  not  set  for  your  own  vindication  ; 
you  are  set  for  the  defense  of  the  Gospel,  and  God 
is  pledged  for  your  defense.'  'Give  place  unto 
wrath;  for  vengeance  is  mine;  I  will  repay,  saith 
the  Lord.'  Jordan  possessed  the  third  blessing, 
and  he  went  into  the  school  without  a  word,  taught 
as  though  nothing  unusual  had  occurred,  dismissed 
his  school,  and  the  scholars  came  the  next  day  and 


SOME  INDIA  FRUITS. 


145 


the  day  after,  and  all  went  on  :is  usual.  But  the 
posters  attracted  attention,  and  the  Mohammedan 
and  high-caste  gentlemen  of  the  city  said :  '  What 
does  all  this  mean?  Who  is  this  Jordan,  and  why 
are  these  things  being  posted  about  him  just  now?' 
It  was  replied  that  for  the  last  two  years  every  boy 
who  had  gone  from  his  school  to  take  the  govern- 
ment examinations  had  passed,  and  that  these 
posters  had  been  printed  by  the  Brahman  and  other 
teachers  because  they  thought  the  attendance  at 
their  schools  might  be  injured  by  his  success. 
'All,'  said  these  shrewd  men,  'is  that  so;  every 
boy  ? '  '  Yes.'  *  Then  that  is  where  we  will  send 
our  boys ;  for  what  we  want  is  to  be  sure  they  will 
pass  the  government  examinations  ;'  and  the  attend- 
ance increased  within  a  month  so  that  from  that 
time  to  this  his  school  has  been  self-supporting,  and 
has  not  needed  a  rupee  of  missionary  money. 

"There  was  a  girl,  the  daughter  of  a  scavenger, 
who  came  into  one  of  our  schools  and  passed  from 
form  to  form  till  she  was  graduated,  an  earnest 
Christian  young  woman.  Then  she  went  to  Agra, 
to  the  Lady  Dufferin  Medical  College,  and  was 
graduated  there,  and  returned  to  Moradabad  about 
the  time  that  Jordan  was  graduated.  People  had 
often  said  to  him,  'Why  don't  you  marry?'  But 
his  reply  was,  '  I  have  not  time.  I  am  studying.' 
She  was  more  frequently  asked  the  same  question, 
and  her  reply  was  about  the  same.  By  one  of 
those  carefully  adjusted  providences  by  which  God 
delights  to  help  his  own,  the  chief  nurse  of  the 


146      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

Lady  Dufferin  Hospital  at  Moradabad  was  taken 
ill,  and  there  were  some  very  critical  cases  needing 
specially  careful  attention.  The  physicians  said, 
'  We  must  have  somebody  who  is  trained  to  take 
this  place  at  once.'  Some  one  suggested  :  '  There 
is  a  young  woman  in  the  city  who  has  recently 
been  graduated  from  the  medical  college  at  Agra. 
Maybe  she  might  be  secured  for  a  week  till  we  can 
find  some  one  else.'  She  was  asked,  and  consented 
to  serve  in  the  emergency ;  but  at  the  end  of  the 
week  the  physicians  said,  '  We  cannot  let  her  go  ; 
she  must  stay  at  least  a  month  longer.'  So  she 
stayed,  and  they  made  her  head  nurse  of  the  hos- 
pital, giving  her  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  ru- 
pees a  month  ;  and  she  and  Jordan,  according  to  an 
arrangement  made  when  they  were  children,  got 
married.  It  was  the  same  old  story — praise  the 
Lord  ! — and  is  repeating  itself  with  delightful  fre- 
quency. Mrs.  Jordan  still  holds  that  position,  and 
treats  the  Brahman  women,  the  American  mission- 
aries, and  the  foreigners  of  the  city,  thoroughly  re- 
spected by  all  because  of  her  Christian  character 
and  scientific  skill." 


HOW  OUR  MISSIONARIES  LIVE. 


147 


CHAPTER  XIX. 
How  our  Missionaries  Live. 

FIRST  of  all,  many  of  our  missionaries  on  the 
great  highway  of  travel  live  in  a  state  of  mild 
fear  of  "  globe  trotters,"  that  is,  Americans  and 
Europeans  who  come  to  India  in  the  winter,  when, 
as  Bishop  Thomson  describes  it,  "  the  climate  is 
fit  for  angels ; "  who,  even  if  they  profess  to  be 
Christians  and  friends  of  missions,  are  some  of 
them  much  more  concerned  about  the  Taj,  with  its 
marvelous  arches,  from  which  the  jewels  have  been 
stolen,  than  about  the  imperishable  jewels  which 
Christian  love  has  picked  up  out  of  the  dust  of 
heathenism  ;  and  who,  after  a  month's  hasty  obser- 
vation, sometimes  go  home  to  declare  oracularly 
that  they  saw  very  little  indication  of  missionary 
progress,  and  even  to  quote  the  statements  of  for- 
eigners who,  while  at  home,  were  enemies  of  Christ, 
and  of  course  in  India  think  of  missionaries  as 
well-meaning  but  worthless  people. 

The  truth  is  that  in  any  country  travelers  are  apt 
to  find  what  they  most  assiduously  look  for.  Abun- 
dant facts  prove  to  me  that  the  above  description  is 
no  caricature  of  not  a  few  travelers  in  India  who 
ought  to  be  first  of  all  concerned  about  the  progress 
of  Christianity.  Such  observers  are  quite  likely  to 
speak  of  missionaries  as  dwelling  in  "  palaces,"  and 


148      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


living  in  ease  and  "  luxury ;"  but  I  am  happy  to 
say  that  after  considerable  observation  I  cannot 
confirm  such  statements. 

I  have  been  a  guest  in  twenty-three  missionary 
homes  in  India.  The  first  was  that  of  Bishop  Tho- 
burn,  who  lives  in  fairly  spacious  and  comfortable 
apartments  on  the  top  of  a  church,  reached  by  a 
stairway  with  forty-five  steps.  In  Bombay  and 
Calcutta  the  residences  of  some  of  our  missionaries 
are  built  in  the  style  of  houses  in  large  cities,  be- 
cause of  the  limitation  of  space  ;  but  in  most  places 
I  have  found  very  large  and  beautiful  "  com- 
pounds," often  containing  several  acres,  where  land 
is  exceedingly  cheap  or  was  acquired  by  donation — 
an  arrangement  exceedingly  to  be  desired,  because 
of  the  need  of  air  and  shade  in  this  hot  country. 

A  good  mission  house  costs  from  fifteen  hundred 
to  twenty-five  hundred  dollars.  It  is  built  of  bricks 
laid  in  mud  mortar.  The  walls  are  plastered  with 
lime  and  whitewashed  ;  the  ceiling  is  of  cloth,  the 
roof  of  bamboo  and  tiles.  Some  of  the  newer 
houses  have  roofs  of  masonry  arches,  on  iron  gird- 
ers, which  are  usually  railway  rails.  The  mission 
house  has  a  sitting  room,  dining  room,  office,  guest 
room,  and  two  other  sleeping  rooms.  The  ceilings 
are  from  fifteen  to  twenty  feet  high,  and  the  rooms 
are  large,  because  of  the  excessive  heat  during  the 
summer  months.  Most  houses  have  deep  veran- 
das. The  cook  house,  servants'  houses,  and  stable 
are  at  a  distance  from  the  house. 

To  a  stranger  the  question  of  furnishing  so  large 


HOW  OUR  MISSIONARIES  LIVE. 


149 


a  house  would  sccin  a  very  difficult  one  ;  but  the 
furnishings  and  draperies  are,  according  to  Amer- 
ican standards,  exceedingly  inexpensive.  One  of 
our  missionaries,  returning  for  a  furlough  and  vis- 
iting an  old  friend  in  a  three-room  parsonage  in 
Montana,  saw  in  his  parlor  a  piano  which  cost  more 
than  the  entire  furnishings  of  the  house  the  mis- 
sionary had  recently  left.  After  careful  inquiry  in 
several  places,  I  am  sure  that  half  the  cost  of  fur- 
nishing the  parlor  only,  in  an  average  Methodist 
parsonage  in  New  York  or  Chicago,  would  com- 
pletely furnish  any  one  of  the  twenty-three  mis- 
sionary homes  I  saw  in  India. 

The  Missionary  Society  allows  one  hundred  dol- 
lars to  each  house  for  heavy  furniture.  The  floors 
are  covered  with  date  matting  costing  from  two  to 
three  cents  a  square  yard.  Very  cheap  rugs,  called 
dtirrics,  are  laid  over  the  matting  on  portions  of 
the  most  used  rooms.  The  furniture  is  mostly  of 
bamboo  work,  and  the  draperies  of  very  cheap  but 
pretty  native  fabrics. 

The  servants  in  such  a  home  are  a  cook,  a  bearer 
(who  looks  after  the  house  and  waits  on  the  table), 
a  sweeper,  a  water  carrier,  and  a  syce  (who  takes 
care  of  the  horse).  If  there  are  small  children  in 
the  house  there  must  be  also  an  ayah,  or  children's 
nurse.  The  poorest  people  who  have  houses  keep 
these  servants.  The  rich  have  many  more.  So 
large  a  number  of  servants  is  necessary,  owing  to 
the  fact  that  servants  will  do  only  the  work  of  their 
own  departments.    You  cannot  induce  the  cook  to 


150      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


bring  water,  nor  the  waiter  to  sweep,  even  by  offer- 
ing double  wages.  They  simply  will  not  do  what 
is  out  of  their  line.  The  cost  of  five  or  six  servants 
is  not  more  than  ten  or  fifteen  dollars  a  month, 
without  food. 

During  from  six  to  eight  months  of  the  year,  be- 
cause of  the  intense  heat,  it  is  necessary  to  employ 
from  two  to  four  coolies  to  pull  punkahs  (fans  sus- 
pended from  the  ceiling  by  ropes,  and  pulled  from 
the  veranda).  These  coolies  receive  from  three  to 
four  cents  a  day  each,  without  food,  and  can  live  on 
two  cents  a  day. 

From  October  to  April  the  missionaries  rise  at 
about  six  o'clock,  have  chota  haziri,  that  is,  a  cup 
of  tea  and  a  slice  of  toast  ;  then  the  work  of  the 
day  begins.  The  family  meet  at  ten  or  eleven  for 
breakfast ;  again  for  tea  at  two  o'clock ;  and  for 
dinner  at  six  or  half-past  seven,  according  to  the 
convenience  of  the  workers. 

From  April  to  October  they  rise  at  about  half- 
past  four,  and  complete  all  outdoor  work  at  ten  or 
eleven,  often  remaining  indoors  because  of  the  in- 
tense heat  till  five  o'clock.  The  thermometer  dur- 
ing the  greatest  heat  often  stands  at  175°  in  the 
sun,  117°  in  the  shade,  and  102°  in  the  house.  The 
doors  are  closed  at  eight  in  the  morning  and  opened 
at  six  in  the  evening.  Because  of  this  heat  the 
rooms  must  be  large.  By  using  tatties,  doors 
made  of  grass  and  kept  wet,  the  temperature  in 
large  rooms  may  be  kept  below  100°  during  the 
greatest  heat  of  the  day. 


HOW  OUR  MISSIONARIES  LIVE. 


151 


The  rains  begin  the  last  week  of  June  and  con- 
tinue till  the  end  of  September.  The  heat  during 
these  months  is  very  trying,  because  it  is  moist  and 
debilitating.  Many  ladies  and  children  and  some 
men  have  to  go  to  "hill  stations,"  like  Naini  Tal, 
during  the  intense  heat,  but  the  majority  remain 
at  their  posts. 

Such,  in  brief,  is  a  candid  statement  of  my  obser- 
vations as  to  how  our  missionaries  in  India  live. 
How  they  work  I  cannot  now  attempt  to  describe. 
Many  of  them,  as  I  have  reason  to  know,  work  be- 
yond their  strength,  as  good  men  and  women  in 
other  countries  are  wont  to  do  when  they  see 
measureless  opportunities  of  richly  rewarding  work 
demanding  their  attention  every  day  and  every 
hour.  We  have  eleven  missionaries  in  India  (sev- 
eral of  whose  wives  still  survive  and  are  zealous 
workers)  who  have  been  at  their  posts  more  than 
thirty-five  years  ;  and  quite  a  number  besides,  more 
than  twenty-five  years.  Of  the  several  scores 
whom  I  have  met  and  talked  with  freely  I  did  not 
find  one  who  was  willing  to  leave  the  country  for 
any  reason  save  of  health ;  and  I  find  many  who, 
after  needed  and  merited  furloughs,  have  returned 
to  their  life  work  with  great  joy. 

Considering  the  nature  and  hardships  of  their 
work,  the  heathenism  with  which  they  are  in  per- 
petual struggle,  their  expatriation  from  their  dear 
home  country  and  the  home  Church,  the  intense 
heat  of  the  climate  for  eight  months  in  the  year, 
plague  and  cholera  and  fevers  and  other  diseases 


152      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


against  which  they  have  constantly  to  stand  guard, 
the  isolation  of  many  of  them  from  the  priceless 
delights  of  Christian  sympathy  ;  and  considering 
tlie  noble  successes  in  educational  and  evangelistic 
work  which  they  have  achieved  and  are  increas- 
ingly achieving,  I  can  say  from  the  heart — God 
bless  our  missionaries  in  India.  And  it  seems  to 
me  that  the  Church  in  lands  more  highly  favored 
need  not  envy  them  their  plain,  spacious,  simple, 
comfortable  homes. 


t 
I 

! 


SELF-SUPRORT. 


153 


CHAPTER  XX. 
Self-support. 

GOD'S  message  to  races,  nations,  and  com- 
nuinities,  as  well  as  to  individuals,  is, 
"  Work  out  your  own  salvation."  America  can 
never  save  India;  England  can  never  save  India; 
if  India  is  ever  saved  it  must  under  God  be  saved 
by  India.  Japan  must  be  saved  by  Japan  ;  the 
Negro  race  by  the  Negro  race.  The  most  that 
can  ever  be  done  from  the  outside  is  to  lend  a 
hand  to  help  until  the  saving  work  has  fairly 
begun. 

The  jealousy  of  foreign  influence  in  religious  mat- 
ters manifested  in  various  mission  fields,  and  most 
unreasonably  and  offensively  in  Japan,  is  all  based 
upon  a  just  instinct.  There  is  but  "  one  mediator 
between  God  and  man,  the  man  Christ  Jesus;" 
other  mediators  can  only  lead  men  to  him  until  a 
Christian  community  is  established  and  becomes 
strong  enough  to  stand  alone.  Until  such  develop- 
ment is  reached,  the  obligation  of  the  Christian 
Church  to  its  foreign  missions  is  manifest  and  posi- 
tive ;  but  from  the  beginning  the  Church  must 
make  arrangements  for  such  development  leading 
to  such  outcome.  The  child  must  become  an  inde- 
pendent man.  As  a  babe  he  must  be  carried,  and 
tended,  and  nourished  ;  as  a  child,  taught,  guided, 


154      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


reproved,  and  trained  ;  and  at  length  as  a  young 
man,  wisely  launched. 

The  problems  thus  suggested  are  among  the 
gravest  in  missionary  enterprise.  American  Meth- 
odism must  hold  fast  to  India  Methodism  until 
India  Methodism  can  stand  alone.  Is  that  all? 
O,  no !  India  Methodism  must  be  able  to  walk 
and  run  alone,  and  with  giant  strides  address  itself 
to  one  of  the  most  stupendous  problems  ever  com- 
mitted to  the  Christian  Church,  the  evangelization, 
conversion,  and  upbuilding  of  three  hundred  mil- 
lions of  heathen  and  Mohammedans. 

America  and  Great  Britain  are  therefore  under  a 
vast  responsibility  to  India.  We  cannot  let  go  or 
loosen  our  hold  until  Christianity  is  marching  for- 
ward all  over  India,  "conquering"  and  manifestly 
"  to  conquer."  Until  then  we  must  furnish  foreign 
missionaries  enough  for  effective  guidance,  for  in- 
spiration, and  for  example  ;  and  money  enough  for 
the  "  sinews  of  war,"  in  carrying  on  educational, 
philanthropic  and  evangelistic  work. 

Yet,  all  the  while,  the  effort  at  self-support  must 
be  encouraged,  and  the  best  methods  of  self-sup- 
port assiduously  taught.  In  the  long  run,  the  one 
way  really  to  help  men  is  to  teach  them  how  to  help 
themselves ;  and  the  same  is  true  of  communities, 
nations,  and  Churches.  It  is  manifest  that  the 
obligation  of  this  great  fundamental  truth  has  be- 
come more  and  more  clear  to  the  missionary 
societies,  and  that  the  views  of  our  own  Missionary 
Society  on  this  matter  have  been  gradually  ma- 


SELF-SUPPORT. 


155 


tured.  Our  greatest  embarrassment  in  relation  to 
it  has  been  met  with  in  Roman  Catholic  countries. 
Romanists  carelessly  take  for  granted  that  if  they 
turn  away  from  their  own  Church,  Protestants 
ought  to  do  everything  for  them.  On  this  point 
the  heathen  are  wiser  and  more  self-reliant.  The 
self-support  idea  flourishes  better  in  India  than  in 
Italy  or  Mexico  ;  indeed,  its  growth  in  India  is  very 
encouraging. 

The  first  and  most  important  object  lesson  on 
self-support  which  came  under  my  eye  in  India 
was  at  the  Hathras  camp  meeting.  In  connection 
with  the  services  of  that  meeting  it  had  been 
arranged  to  hold  two  District  Conferences  simul- 
taneously, one  under  the  presidency  of  the  presid- 
ing elder,  J.  E.  Scott,  an  American  missionary, 
and  the  other  under  the  presidency  of  Hasan  Rasa 
Khan,  a  native  presiding  elder  who  was  originally  a 
high-caste  Mohammedan,  and  who  has  been  for 
many  years  one  of  our  most  efficient  pastors  and 
presiding  elders.  On  Saturday  morning  self-sup- 
port meetings  were  held  for  both  these  districts. 
At  the  first  of  these  there  were  present  about  six 
hundred  men,  women,  and  children,  all  sitting  on 
the  ground  under  a  large  tent.  The  men  and  boys 
were  in  fifteen  bands,  by  circuits,  each  having  at  its 
head  a  rude  band  of  music  with  very  odd  and  in- 
harmonious native  instruments.  At  first  the  whole 
fifteen  sets  played  and  sang  all  at  once,  different 
tunes  in  mongrel  dialect ;  all  in  praise  of  Christ. 
Then  all  sang  together  a  fine  Christian  hymn,  and 


156      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


at  the  close  of  each  verse  Dr.  Scott  led  them  in  the 
loud  shout  of  "  Yishu,  Jai  "  ("  Victory  to  Jesus,"  or 
"Glory  to  Jesus").  The  native  president  and 
secretary  then  called  the  circuits  in  order  and 
reported  the  contributions  made  during  the  year 
for  self-support.  Many  reported  gifts  of  chickens, 
pigs,  baskets,  eggs,  winnowing  fans,  goats,  small 
quantities  of  various  grains  ;  and  two  of  the  preach- 
ers reported  gifts  of  cow  dung  in  these  collections. 
This  leads  me  to  say  that  in  various  parts  of  India 
the  collection  of  cow  dung  out  of  the  streets  and 
fields  is  a  common  industry  for  women,  who 
mould  it  into  flat  cakes  with  their  hands  and  plaster 
these  against  the  sides  of  their  mud  huts  until 
dried,  and  then  carry  the  cakes  to  market  to  be  sold 
for  fuel. 

The  aggregate  self-support  collection  was  six 
pice  (three  cents)  for  each  of  the  members,  proba- 
tioners, and  adherents  of  the  Church.  When  this 
movement  began  Presiding  Elder  Scott  said  that 
one  pice  each  would  be  a  good  result.  Inspiring 
hymns  were  sung,  earnest  prayers  were  offered, 
stimulating  and  sensible  speeches  were  made  by 
several  natives,  and  a  special  hymn  was  used, 
written  for  the  occasion  by  Rev.  Chimman  Lai. 
Then  the  collection  was  taken,  in  which  contribu- 
tions very  similar  to  those  above  referred  to  were 
laid  upon  the  table,  including  several  pieces  of 
cheap  jewelry,  many  pecks  of  grain  of  various 
kinds,  and  one  little  goat,  all  of  which  were  sold  at 
auction  at  the  close  of  the  service. 


SELF-SUPPORT. 


157 


The  special  hymn  was  as  follows . 

"SELF-SUPPORT"  HYMN. 

(Translated  from  the  Hindustani  of  Rev.  Chimman  Lai.) 

Hear,  brother,  and  think  on  this : 

To  give  is  more  blessed  than  to  receive. 

CHORUS. 

Give  your  offerings,  brother ;  and  if  you  cannot  do  that, 
Speak  out  for  self-support. 

Whatever  water  you  take  from  a  well. 
Double  will  remain.    Try  it  and  see. 

The  light  of  your  gifts  reaches  to  heaven, 
A  light  not  like  that  of  a  candle. 

What  is  yours  ?  It  all  is  his. 
Bow  body  and  soul  to  Christ. 

Do  not  be  proud  of  your  wealth  or  careless ; 
But  look  to  Christ  and  be  filled  with  his  love. 

When  the  death  angel  comes  for  your  soul, 
Prone  will  you  lie,  hands  and  feet  extended. 

Life  comes,  stays,  goes  from  the  world. 
When  once  it  has  gone  it  never  returns. 

Sabir  has  seated  himself  and  spread  his  blanket ; 
Quickly  come,  brothers,  and  bring  your  collections. 

At  the  session  of  the  Northwest  India  Confer- 
ence, which  includes  these  two  districts,  Agra  and 
Kasganj,  one  of  the  chief  meetings  was  the  "Self- 
support  Anniversary,"  which  was  looked  forward  to 
with  the  keenest  interest.  That  interest  was  intensi- 
fied by  the  previous  meeting  of  the  Finance  Com- 
mittee, in  which  it  was  found  that  if  they  provided 
for  the  existing  work  with  the  strictest  economy, 


153      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


thirty-seven  hundred  rupees  were  still  needed  in 
order  to  avoid  the  dismissal  of  many  native  work- 
ers, and  thus  the  abandonment  of  a  large  number 
of  recently  baptized  converts.  This,  it  was  felt  by 
all  the  presiding  elders  assembled,  as  well  as  by 
Bishop  Thoburn,  Dr.  Goucher,  and  my  self,  zue  coti/d 
not  do  with  our  eyes  on  the  Judgment  Seat ;  so 
everyone  present  contributed  liberally  to  make 
up  the  deficit.  Almost  every  presiding  elder 
pledged  one  tenth  of  his  salary  for  the  coming 
year ;  while  all  felt  a  wonderful  sense  of  God's  im- 
mediate presence,  and  a  spiritual  refreshment 
amounting  almost  to  rapture.  When  this  was 
reported  at  the  informal  evening  prayer  meeting, 
around  the  supper  tables,  other  missionaries  in- 
.sisted  on  making  offerings  for  the  same  purpose, 
several  teachers  of  the  Woman's  Foreign  Mission- 
ary Society  pledging  one  hundred  rupees  each. 

At  the  Self-support  Anniversary  the  intensest 
enthusiasm  prevailed.  Reports  were  made  from 
all  the  districts  in  the  Conference  of  what  had  been 
done  for  self-support  during  the  year.  Hymns, 
addresses,  and  prayers,  all  relating  to  the  same 
subject,  were  offered,  and  the  chief  native  apostle 
of  this  movement,  Hasan  Rasa  Khan,  asked  those 
of  his  preachers  and  Bible  readers  who  were  ready 
to  stand  with  him  on  the  platform  of  entire  self- 
support,  to  come  forward.  Twenty-two  came,  and 
at  the  close  of  the  meeting  another  native  pre- 
siding elder  cheerfully  stepped  out  on  the  same 
platform. 


SELF-SUPPORT. 


159 


The  following  brief  extracts  are  only  hints  of  the 
addresses  which  would  have  electrified  any  audi- 
ence in  America. 

Rev.  H.  R.  Khan,  presiding  elder,  said :  "  I 
made  up  my  mind  a  few  years  ago  that  I  would 
not  put  my  faith  in  American  rupees.  While  I 
was  on  the  Missionary  Society  I  never  owned  a 
cow  or  bison  ;  but  since  I  have  been  on  self-support 
I  have  three  cows  and  a  bison,  and  have  not 
lacked  for  anything.  The  first  two  years  I  was  on 
self-support  there  were  only  two  of  our  workers 
that  stood  with  me.  Last  year  there  were  six,  now 
there  arc  twenty-two  on  self-support  in  my  district. 
The  time  will  come  when  the  Church  in  India  will 
do  its  own  work." 

Rev.  Isaac  Franklin  said :  "  I  won't  call  it  self- 
support,  I  will  call  it  Hindustani  work.  At  the 
self-support  meeting  held,  some  gave  cattle,  women 
gave  their  shawls  and  jewelry,  men  gave  grain  and 
other  things ;  whatever  they  had  that  they  could 
possibly  spare.  The  chickens  were  so  down-hearted 
in  our  community  that  they  would  not  crow ;  but 
after  they  had  been  given  in  so  good  a  cause  they 
crowed  nearly  all  the  time." 

Rev.  H.  Clancy  said  :  "  Everybody  in  our  employ 

gives  to  the  work  of  the  mission.    The  women  who 

sweep  and  work  in  the  garden  receive  five  pice  a 

day,  and  of  this  they  give  one  pice  a  week.  All 

the  mission  workers  in  my  district  give  two  pice 

from  every  rupee  which  they  receive.  The  children 

in  the  orphanage  get  one  pound  of  flour  or  meal 
11 


160      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


per  day,  and  give  about  two  ounces  per  week  as 
their  offering.  The  boys  take  their  offering  of 
flour  or  meal  in  a  basket  to  church,  and  at  the  close 
of  the  service  bring  it  before  the  altar ;  and  the  girls 
come  forward  and  pour  their  savings  of  flour  or 
meal  into  the  same  basket." 

In  the  several  Annual  Conferences,  Dr.  Goucher, 
in  full  and  constant  consultation  with  myself,  had 
been  preparing  the  way  by  conversations  and  ad- 
dresses for  the  plan  set  forth  in  the  following  reso- 
lutions of  the  Central  Conference,  passed  after  care- 
ful deliberation  and  with  full  confidence  in  the 
growing  success  of  the  movement ;  and  constituting 
the  most  advanced  action,  so  far  as  I  know,  yet 
taken  concerning  this  subject  in  any  of  our  mission 
fields: 

"  Pastoral  Support  and  Grant-in-aid. 

"  The  Grant-in-aid  plan  shall  be  adopted  in  all 
circuits  and  subcircuits  in  which  Christians  reside, 
according  to  the  following  plan  : 

"The  sum  to  be  collected  on  each  circuit  shall 
be  apportioned  by  the  Finance  Committee  of  the 
Annual  Conference,  and  the  payment  of  this  appro- 
priation shall  be  conditioned  on  the  payment  by  the 
circuit  of  the  sum  apportioned,  unless  modified  by 
the  Finance  Committee.  If  only  a  part  of  the  ap- 
portionment is  raised  by  the  circuit  or  station, 
then  only  a  like  proportion  of  the  appropriation 
shall  be  paid  by  the  Treasurer  of  the  Conference. 

"  Where  the  organization  of  the  circuits  require 


SELF-SUPPORT. 


161 


it,  the  amount  apportioned  to  the  circuit  shall  be 
redivided  among  the  several  subcircuit  or  village 
preachers,  by  the  Quarterly  Conference,  with  the 
approval  of  the  presiding  elder, 

"  To  secure  the  payment  of  the  apportionments, 
an  earnest  and  persistent  effort  in  every  circuit,  sub- 
circuit,  and  village  must  be  made  to  induce  every 
Christian  and  inquirer  to  pay  a  stated  amount  peri- 
odically according  to  his  ability.  To  make  this 
plan  efficient  the  forms  for  collector  and  circuit 
treasurer's  books  herewith  attached  shall  be  used. 

"  Each  presiding  elder  shall  submit  to  the  treas- 
urer of  his  Conference  a  half-yearly  statement 
showing  the  total  apportionment  to  each  circuit  of 
his  district  and  the  amount  actually  paid  by  each  ; 
and  the  treasurer  shall  make  the  necessary  deduc- 
tions, if  any,  from  his  succeeding  payments.  A  copy 
of  each  report  shall  also  be  submitted  to  the  next 
meeting  of  the  Finance  Committee  by  the  presid- 
ing elder. 

"  The  collecting  agency  shall  be  the  disciplinary 
one  through  class  leaders  and  stewards,  or  such 
financial  committee  as  the  Quarterly  Conference 
may  appoint." 

It  must  not,  however,  be  carelessly  taken  for 
granted  that  such  movements  toward  self-support 
can,  in  their  early  stage,  bring  any  considerable 
relief  to  our  general  treasury.  The  most  they  can 
do  for  a  while  is  to  prevent  the  curtailment  of  the 
native  evangelistic  work,  and  possibly  to  extend  that 
work  somewhat  where  many  thousands  are  ready 


162      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

to  come  forward  for  baptism.  Hasan  Raza  Khan, 
in  his  report  as  Presiding  Elder  of  the  Kasganj 
District,  thus  presents  the  subject  to  the  Annual 
Conference : 

"  The  word  of  God  is  true.  Ask  and  it  shall  be 
given  you,  and  knock  and  it  shall  be  opened  unto 
you.  Thanks  be  to  the  Lord  for  a  new  year  of 
health  and  power  to  work.  Whenever  I  have  asked 
him,  he  has  given  me.  For  the  last  few  years  the 
workers  in  the  Kasganj  District  have  prayed  and 
worked  with  heart  and  soul  for  four  things. 

"  The  four  things  are :  that  every  Christian  in 
this  district  should  be  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost ; 
that  every  native  Christian  should  pay  for  Jesus 
Christ  whatever  he  can,  out  of  his  income  ;  that  our 
Christians  should  be  taught  to  read  and  write,  and 
read  the  Bible ;  and  that  the  teaching  of  the  Bible 
may  spread  in  other  nations,  that  they,  receiving  the 
truth,  may  be  baptized. 

"  In  the  beginning  of  the  year  I  had  made  up  my 
mind  not  to  increase  the  number  of  new  baptisms, 
but  to  improve  the  spiritual  and  intellectual  con- 
dition of  our  people.  We  formed  this  idea  only 
for  two  reasons :  firstly,  because  a  famine  was 
spreading,  and  secondly,  because  the  number  of 
workers  was  insufficient.  We  gave  more  attention 
to  the  education  and  instruction  of  the  village 
Christian  community  as  well  as  of  the  old  con- 
verts ;  but  still  the  number  of  baptisms  for  this  year 
is  one  thousand  two  hundred  and  twenty-six. 

"  I  came  to  learn  from  the  reports  of  the  preach- 


SELF-SUPPORT. 


163 


ers  in  charge,  as  well  as  my  own  personal  experi- 
ence, that  about  ten  or  fifteen  thousand  persons 
could  at  once  be  baptized  ;  and  besides  these,  thou- 
sands of  true  seekers  are  found.  I  am  very  much 
perplexed  as  to  how  the  work  can  be  maintained ; 
for  every  year  a  decrease  in  money  from  America 
takes  place,  and  the  work  is  rapidly  increasing  and 
cannot  be  limited  or  stopped.  About  forty  or  fifty 
congregations  have  no  teachers  at  present,  and 
members  come  to  us  and  ask  for  teachers.  Others 
send  similar  requests,  telling  us  that  the  mission 
has  forgotten  them.  They  cry  out  that  they  with 
their  children  are  left  in  ignorance.  They  are  con- 
stantly asking  us  for  pastor-teachers  to  tell  them  of 
Christ.  Hearing  these  constant  requests  we  wish 
to  send  teachers  to  them,  but  when  we  ask  our- 
selves how  the  teachers  are  to  be  paid,  we  are  sorry 
and  silent.  I  want  to  take  the  advice  of  my  pastors 
and  benefactors,  in  this  heavy  and  important  task, 
as  to  how  the  work  should  be  carried  on.  Most  of 
the  congregations  have  no  teachers,  and  there  are 
thousands  of  seekers.  We  do  not  require  good 
preachers  for  this  work,  but  we  want  some  pastor- 
teachers  on  six  rupees  monthly  each.  We  have  a 
number  of  young  workers  ready  with  us  who  can 
at  once  be  put  to  work.  These  will  discharge  the 
duties  well.  They  will  teach  the  children  of  the 
new  converts  daily ;  and  will  teach  the  Bible  also 
to  the  converts  in  the  morning  and  evening.  One 
pastor-teacher  is  enough  to  look  after  one  hundred 
Christians.    The  work  is  heavy  and  necessary,  and 


164      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


requires  immediate  attention.  Please  make  haste 
to  help  us." 

The  latest  word  from  India  on  this  subject  which 
has  reached  me  is  the  following  letter  from  the 
Rev.  Rockwell  Clancy  to  Mr.  Blackstone,  the  gen- 
erous founder  of  the  Deaconess  Training  Insti- 
tute, at  Muttra : 

"  My  Dear  Brother  :  Our  Finance  Committee 
recently  held  its  mid-year  session  to  consider  the 
financial  situation  and  to  prepare  estimates  for  1899 
to  be  sent  to  the  Missionary  Society.  Our  com- 
mittee is  made  up  of  the  presiding  elders  and  five 
elected  members.  There  are  nine  American  and 
five  native  members,  representing  every  department 
of  the  work  in  the  Northwest  India  Conference. 
The  ladies'  committee  of  the  Woman's  Foreign 
Missionary  Society  met  at  the  same  time. 

"  The  first  important  matter  brought  before  the 
committee  was  a  debt  of  nearly  $15,000  on  our 
current  work,  accumulated  for  several  years.  The 
debt  arose  because  our  work  has  outgrown  the 
ability  of  the  Missionary  Society  to  support  it. 
The  money  given  by  the  society  has  been  supple- 
mented by  Bishop  Thoburn's  Special  Fund;  and 
the  amount  promised  by  Bishop  Thoburn  is  en- 
tirely conditioned  on  his  receiving  it.  The  receipts 
of  the  Special  Fund  have  not  been  sufficient  to  pay 
the  amount  promised,  hence  a  debt  of  $15,000. 

"  For  the  past  two  years  we  have  had  the  worst 
famine  of  this  century ;  and  we  felt  that  we  could 
not  turn  our  preachers  and  teachers  away  from  the 


SELF-SUPPORT. 


165 


work  to  face  starvation.  But  we  have  now  reached 
the  place  where  we  must  dismiss  workers  or  go 
further  into  debt.  Several  members  of  the  com- 
mittee proposed  to  close  nearly  all  the  work  in  the 
Punjab  and  Rajputana,  entirely  withdrawing  our 
preachers  from  all  but  a  few  stations.  We  have 
about  six  thousand  Christians  in  Rajputana,  and 
about  one  thousand  five  hundred  in  the  Punjab, 
who  would  be  left  without  pastors.  Many  of  them 
would  certainly  go  back  to  heathenism  if  their 
pastors  were  withdrawn.  Others  propose  to  dis- 
miss workers  from  every  district. 

"  We  have  in  the  Northwest  India  Conference 
50,000  Christians,  for  whose  pastoral  care  there  are 
15  foreign  missionaries,  13  wives  of  missionaries,  12 
Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society  ladies,  17 
assistants,  37  native  members  of  Conference,  173 
local  preachers,  253  exhorters,  258  Christian  teach- 
ers, 199  Bible  readers,  and  52  colporteurs  and  others ; 
total,  1,029  paid  workers.  We  cannot  dismiss  our 
preachers  who  are  in  charge  of  the  circuits,  and  to 
dismiss  our  pastor-teachers  and  Bible  readers  would 
be  to  leave  our  weak  Christians  untaught. 

"  Thousands  of  Christians  have  only  just  emerged 
from  the  grossest  heathenism.  They  are  supersti- 
tious, and  are  surrounded  by  heathen  relatives  and 
neighbors  who  are  doing  all  in  their  power  to  draw 
them  back  into  idolatry.  Our  Christians  are  invited 
to  heathen  feasts ;  and  it  is  not  strange  that  many 
of  them  should  frequently  fall  into  idolatry.  To 
leave  them  alone  would  be  worse  than  never  to 


166      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

have  baptized  them.  We  have  led  them  out  of  the 
densest  darkness,  but  terrible  influences  are  con- 
stantly exerted  upon  them  to  draw  them  back. 
What  can  we  do  to  save  our  people?  The  situa- 
tion is  lamentable,  and  but  for  the  grace  of  God  we 
would  be  discouraged. 

"  Our  very  success  is  the  cause  of  our  debt.  The 
utter  indifference  of  millions  of  Church  members  in 
America  with  reference  to  the  salvation  of  the 
heathen  fills  our  heart  with  unutterable  sadness; 
but  we  thank  God  for  every  one  who  has  the  mis- 
sionary spirit. 

"  During  the  Committee  meeting  I  roomed  with 
an  old  missionary  who  has  given  most  of  his  life  to 
India.  For  two  nights  he  was  not  able  to  sleep, 
because  of  the  thought  of  abandoning  our  weak 
Christians  to  heathenism.  The  committee  decided 
to  cut  down  the  work  $2,000  for  the  rest  of  this 
year,  which  would  mean  the  dismissal  of  two  hun- 
dred pastor-teachers  or  a  large  number  of  preachers. 
We  have  decided  to  continue  the  work  as  it  is  for 
the  present  month. 

"  O  !  that  I  could  roll  the  burden  of  these  thou- 
sands of  Christians  upon  the  heart  of  the  Church  at 
home  !  You  can  help  us  by  telling  others.  Please 
use  this  letter.  Our  special  fund  is  urgently  in 
need  of  donations ;  $30  to  $50  a  year  supports  a 
pastor-teacher,  $20  a  training  student,  and  $15  an 
orphan.  The  famine  left  us  about  2,000  orphans, 
for  whose  support  we  must  have  scholarships." 

Mr.  Blackstone  sends  the  following  communica- 


SELF-SUPPORT. 


167 


tion  to  Dr.  A.  B.  Leonard,  missionary  secretary, 
concerning  this  important  and  urgent  matter: 

"  I  cannot  tell  you  how  oppressed  I  have  been  by 
the  contents  of  the  foregoing.  Is  it  possible  that 
our  great  Methodist  Church,  after  the  years  of 
prayer  at  home  and  the  patient  labor  in  this  great 
harvest  field  in  India,  should  now  allow  this  unprec- 
edented success  which  has  been  given  to  us,  under 
the  blessing  of  God,  to  slip  from  our  hands,  and 
seven  thousand  five  hundred  native  Christians, 
with  thousands  of  other  inquirers,  to  be  abandoned 
to  the  soul-destroying  influences  of  heathenism,  all 
for  the  want  of  $15,000?  O!  it  makes  my  heart 
ache  !  And  I  am  sure  it  will  not  be  allowed,  if  our 
Church  can  only  know  the  circumstances." 


168      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 
In  the  Torrid  Zone. 

Calcutta,  Saturday,  January  29,  1898. 

I AM  just  about  to  leave  India  proper;  though 
Burma,  where  I  hope  to  spend  three  or  four 
days,  is  a  part  of  the  great  British  Empire. 

I  cannot  express  in  words,  with  pen  or  tongue, 
the  very  deep  and  constantly  sustained  interest 
which  I  have  found  in  these  weeks  and  days  which 
I  have  spent  in  this  marvelous  country.  My  letters 
and  articles  have  been  so  numerous  and  so  long  that 
my  friends  must  have  thought  I  was  trying  to  get 
something  off  my  mind;  and  I  shall  account  myself 
happy  if  they  can  manage  to  receive  from  what  I 
have  written  a  hundredth  part  of  the  satisfaction  I 
have  had  in  what  I  have  seen  and  heard. 

The  voyage  immediately  before  me  is  said  by 
Bishop  Thoburn,  who  has  taken  it  many  times,  to 
be,  at  this  season  of  the  year,  a  very  delightful  one. 
The  sea  is  likely  to  be  calm,  the  skies  clear,  and  the 
temperature  entirely  comfortable.  I  shall  have  not 
only  a  good  ship,  but  good  company. 

Our  voyage  of  twelve  or  thirteen  days  will  be 
interrupted  by  three  or  four  days  in  Rangoon,  and 
one  day  in  Penang  ;  then  Singapore,  where  we  shall 
be  almost  under  the  equator — within  ninety  miles 
of  it — and  shall  have  a  wonderfully  rich  and  luxuri- 


IN  THE  TORRID  ZONE. 


169 


ant  flora,  and  shall  be  among  people  of  almost  all 
nations  and  languages. 

This  morning  we  attended  the  regular  Saturday 
morning  prayer  meeting  in  the  church  close  to  this 
bungalow,  and  found  it  a  very  refreshing  and  spirit- 
ual meeting.  One  old  lady  told  of  a  friend  of  hers 
who  was  supporting  herself  and  two  Bible  women 
by  the  toil  of  her  own  hands;  and  yet  was  singing 
almost  all  the  day  long  and  all  the  year  round,  be- 
cause she  had  found  how  to  "  glory  in  tribulation," 
and  also  that  "  g-l-o-r-y  does  not  spell  growl." 

Dr.  Goucher  and  I  have  this  morning  called  on 
the  Viceroy  of  all  India,  in  his  very  spacious  but 
not  magnificent  palace.  We  found  him  a  fine  speci- 
men of  a  solid,  elderly  English  gentleman,  very 
courteous  and  affable,  and  looking  as  Secretary 
Stanton  used  to  look.  Dr.  Goucher  showed  him 
his  letter  from  President  McKinley,  and  solicited  a 
donation  of  some  very  valuable  government  reports 
and  other  books  for  the  Woman's  College  of  Bal- 
timore. We  gave  him  some  account  of  our  mission- 
ary and  school  work  in  India,  and  seemed  to  enlist 
his  real  interest.  He  asked  that  Dr.  Goucher's  re- 
quest be  preferred  in  writing,  and  cordially  prom- 
ised to  forward  it  to  the  proper  authorities,  saying 
that  whatever  the  rules  for  the  distribution  of  such 
books  would  permit  should  be  cheerfully  done. 

There  is  in  this  city  a  really  great  museum, 
especially  rich  in  the  departments  of  archaeology, 
ethnology,  and  natural  history.  In  it  I  spent,  with 
great  interest,  quite  too  small  a  part  of  the  morning. 


170      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

Rangoon,  Burma,  February  2,  1898. 

We  arrived  here  to-day  soon  after  noon,  having 
left  Calcutta  on  Sunday  morning  early.  We  had 
gone  aboard  the  ship  Malda,  a  nice  twelve-hundred 
ton  vessel,  the  night  before.  This  we  regretted, 
because  it  caused  us  an  almost  sleepless  night  on  ac- 
count of  the  mosquitoes,  which  constantly  annoyed 
us  in  our  cabin.  I  did  not  go  to  sleep  until  after 
two  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  then  slept  restlessly 
until  sunrise.  So  we  greatly  regretted  that  we  had 
not  stayed  under  mosquito  nets  in  the  Calcutta  par- 
sonage another  night.  But  we  had  a  good  sleep  in 
the  afternoon  of  Monday,  and  made  up  the  rest  of 
our  loss  the  next  night. 

The  journey  of  three  days  was  very  restful  in- 
deed to  me,  after  the  constant  engagements  on 
land  for  so  many  weeks.  The  sea  was  perfectly 
calm  and  smooth  all  the  time  ;  pleasant  breezes  kept 
us  cool  enough,  in  spite  of  the  blazing  sun  over- 
head ;  and  the  voyage  was  in  all  respects  one  to  be 
pleasantly  remembered.  The  rising  and  setting  of 
the  golden  or  crimson  sun  was  really  magnificent ; 
and  the  half  moon  stood  almost  directly  overhead 
every  evening. 

We  had  only  about  thirty  first-class  passengers, 
and  a  few  whom  we  came  to  know  in  the  second- 
class  saloon.  There  were  in  the  company  twelve 
or  fifteen  of  our  missionaries  and  teachers,  some  of 
them  returning  to  Penang  and  Singapore.  We  were 
very  glad  of  the  opportunity  to  become  better  ac- 
quainted with  them,  and  to  learn  more  fully  about 


IN  THE  TORRID  ZONE. 


171 


the  important  work  they  have  in  hand.  There  was 
also  a  Wcsleyan  missionary  from  Mandalay,  Burma, 
on  board. 

The  ship's  table  was  really  excellent  in  variety, 
in  quality,  and  in  service.  We  especially  enjoyed 
the  fruits — chiefly  oranges,  plantains,  and  papayas. 
They  were  all  of  the  best  of  their  kind. 

Among  the  passengers  was  a  genuine  earl — 
Earl  Rosse  of  Ireland — whom  we  found  out  to 
be  a  son  of  the  man  of  telescope  fame.  He  was 
very  chatty  and  intelligent,  as  were  all  the  pas- 
sengers. 

Of  course,  having  now  left  India,  we  naturally 
glance  back  over  the  weeks  we  spent  in  that  won- 
derful country,  and  have  been  taking  account  of 
stock.  I  do  not  attend  to  figures  in  such  matters 
as  Dr.  Goucher  does.  He  has  written  his  wife  this 
week  that  he  has  traveled  7,500  miles  in  India,  has 
attended  4  District  Conferences,  3  camp  meet- 
ings, 2  corner-stone  layings,  i  dedication,  10  or 
12  school  examinations,  and  that  he  has  made  122 
addresses  and  preached  10  sermons.  My  figures 
must  be  very  much  the  same  as  his,  except  that  I 
have  preached  rather  more  sermons  and  made  some- 
what fewer  addresses. 

My  previous  letters  have  attempted  to  convey 
some  impression  of  the  intense  interest  I  have  felt 
in  multitudes  of  things  which  1  have  seen  and  heard  ; 
but  they  must  have  failed  to  give  any  adequate  im- 
pression. When  we  call  to  mind  the  fact  that  we 
have  moved  about  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  and 


172      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


have  been  exposed,  no  doubt  when  we  least 
thought  of  it,  many  times  to  "  the  pestilence  that 
walketh  in  darkness,  and  the  destruction  that  wast- 
eth  at  noonday" — that  in  sundry  places  cholera  has 
had  its  victims,  and  is  likely  to  break  out  anywhere 
in  India  in  epidemic  form  at  almost  any  season  of 
the  year ;  that  smallpox,  always  present  in  the 
cities,  is  especially  a  winter  disease ;  that  fevers  of 
various  kinds  have  been  extraordinarily  prevalent 
during  the  recent  months,  particularly  throughout 
Northern  India,  where  we  spent  most  of  our  time ; 
that  the  plague  has  risen  in  Bombay  from  a  daily 
death-rate  of  five  or  six,  when  we  first  arrived,  to 
one  hundred  and  twenty-five  now,  and  has  claimed 
within  the  past  eighteen  months,  since  it  first  broke 
out,  more  than  ninety  thousand  victims — we  surely 
have  occasion  for  abundant  gratitude  that  we  have 
been  kept  in  perfect  health,  and  have  almost  com- 
pleted our  heavy  labors  with  no  flagging  of  strength. 
The  manifold  mercies  of  God  have  called  forth  our 
daily  thanksgiving,  and  I  feel  sure  that  I  personally 
have  rendered  thanks  to  God  more  frequently  and 
heartily  during  the  last  four  months  than  during  any 
similar  previous  period  in  my  life. 

Aside  from  such  special  personal  mercies  as  I 
thus  allude  to,  the  contrasts  which  have  constantly 
forced  themselves  upon  my  attention  have  fur- 
nished me  particular  occasions  for  thanksgiving. 

As  we  steamed  down  the  Bay  of  Bengal  of 
course  the  polar  star  gradually  sank  behind  us,  until 
it  was  lost  to  view  and  the  Southern  Cross  arose. 


IN  THE  TORRID  ZONE. 


173 


Since  my  first  sight  of  that  cross  in  Mexico  I  have 
noticed  that  travelers  are  impressed  by  it  very  dif- 
ferently.   Bishop  Hendrix  says,  concerning  it : 

"  I  enjoyed  the  sight  of  the  Southern  Cross, 
which  is  visible  only  in  the  tropics.  It  is  the  sail- 
or's friend  in  southern  seas,  for,  by  observation  taken 
of  the  star  at  the  foot  of  the  cross,  he  determines  his 
latitude  and  longitude.  It  is  composed  of  four 
bright  stars,  so  arranged  as  to  give  it  its  name,  and 
when  vertical  is  instantly  recognized  in  the  firma- 
ment. The  memory  of  the  beautiful  vision  lingers 
as  an  inspiration." 

Mark  Twain,  however,  laughs  it  to  scorn  as  a 
fraud,  and  thinks  it  should  be  called  the  "  southern 
kite."  Max  O'Rell  was  so  disappointed  at  his  first 
sight  of  it  that  he  shakes  his  fist  at  it  ever  since. 
My  impression  is  a  sort  of  golden  mean  ;  but  I 
clearly  think  that  the  splendid  cross  which  can  be 
seen  in  this  latitude  in  the  Milky  Way  is  far  more 
beautiful. 

Steamship  Lindula,  between  [ 
Penang  AND  Singapore,  Feb.  ii,  1898.  \ 

Our  steamer  was  to  have  left  Rangoon  on  Sat- 
urday, but  did  not  leave  until  Sunday  afternoon  ; 
so  I  had  an  opportunity  to  preach  in  the  morning, 
and  we  came  on  board  at  three  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon amid  intense  heat  and  discomfort. 

The  registered  tonnage  of  this  ship — that  is, 
its  actual  weight  when  empty — is  two  thousand 
one  hundred  and  eighty  tons;  but  it  brought  from 
Rangoon  four  thousand  tons  of  rice  in  bags,  one 


174      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


thousand  tons  of  which  were  discharged  yesterday 
at  Penang,  where  we  took  on  one  thousand  tons  of 
pepper.  It  is  an  immaculately  clean  ship,  and  very 
comfortable. 

There  are  only  two  other  first-class  passengers 
besides  our  company  of  six  ;  so  each  of  us  has  a 
three-berth  room  to  himself,  Dr.  Goucher's  and 
mine  having  doors  facing  each  other. 

The  table  is  excellent,  having  an  ample  variety 
of  good  food,  including  generally  two  or  three 
kinds  of  fruit  for  breakfast  and  dinner,  at  both  of 
which  meals  we  also  generally  have  a  course  of  curry 
and  rice.  The  rice  is  always  perfectly  boiled,  with 
the  grains  all  separate.  The  curry  is  a  stew  of  chick- 
en, beef,  or  mutton,  and  vegetables ;  highly  seasoned 
with  "  curry,"  which  consists  of  turmeric,  coriander 
seed,  chili,  and  a  half  dozen  other  kinds  of  spices 
rubbed  down  together ;  and  sometimes  with  a  very 
strong  taste  of  pepper,  so  that  it  will  burn  your 
tongue.  On  this  boat,  however,  we  find  it  free 
from  this  objection  and  very  good. 

The  weather  has  been  pretty  hot,  the  thermom- 
eter rarely  less  than  83°  in  our  stateroom  in  the 
early  morning.  Generally,  however,  on  deck  there 
is  a  good  breeze,  and  we  are  very  comfortable.  I 
sleep  on  deck  at  night,  as  several  other  passengers 
do  also.  You  are  to  think  of  me  as  arrayed  in  a 
very  coarse  brown  suit  of  Assam  silk,  very  light 
and  cool.  The  officers  and  some  other  gentlemen 
wear  white  linen  suits,  which  can  be  got  in  this  re- 
gion for  a  dollar  and  a  quarter  each  ;  but  one  must 


IN  THE  TORRID  ZONE. 


175 


have  two  or  three  dozen  suits,  because  you  can 
wear  them  only  a  day  or  two  without  washing. 

The  weather  on  this  trip  has  been  very  calm,  the 
sea  smooth,  and  our  course  almost  always  in  sight 
of  islands.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  after  more 
than  thirty  days  at  sea  since  we  left  New  York  we 
have  not  had  a  single  storm,  and  that  on  the  rail- 
roads we  have  had  no  detention  worth  naming.  I 
make  this  record  very  thankfully,  after  having  trav- 
eled about  twenty-two  thousand  miles. 

At  Penang  we  struck  a  new  coinage  ;  no  more 
rupees,  but  dollars  and  cents.  The  dollar  is  a  beau- 
tiful coin,  probably  of  the  same  weight  as  the  Mex- 
ican dollar,  which  also  passes  current  here,  and  so 
is  a  little  heavier  than  our  silver  dollar,  and  yet  it 
is  worth  only  forty-six  cents.  Penang,  where  we 
lay  at  anchor  a  night  and  a  day,  is  an  important 
port  at  the  entrance  of  the  Straits  of  Malacca, 
three  hundred  and  eighty-one  miles  northwest 
from  Singapore.  We  have  a  very  interesting  and 
promising  mission  work  there,  and  our  mission- 
aries are  now  with  us  on  this  ship  going  down  to 
their  Conference,  which  is  to  meet  in  Singapore  to- 
morrow. 

I  had  there  my  first  experience  riding  in  a  "  jin- 

rikisha,"  a  two-wheeled  gig  with  a  top,  with  a  seat 

for  two  persons,  and  drawn  by  a  single  Chinaman, 

who  trots  at  the  rate  of  seven  miles  an  hour,  and 

will  actually  take  one  or  two  persons  that  distance 

in  that  time.    We  saw  hundreds  of  these  vehicles 

in  the  streets,  and  I  noticed,  as  I  expected  to  find, 
13 


176      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

that  the  Chinamen  who  draw  them  have  a  wonder- 
ful development  of  the  muscles  of  the  legs,  and  es- 
pecially of  the  calf.  They  sweat  in  the  heat,  but 
do  not  seem  to  get  out  of  breath,  and  go  every- 
where at  the  same  swift  trot. 

We  passed  through  the  bazaars,  and  were  greatly 
interested  to  see  the  cosmopolitan  character  of  the 
people  Avho  meet  here,  and  to  find  a  great  variety 
of  tropical  fruits  in  the  markets,  many  of  them  en- 
tirely new  to  me.  We  saw  and  smelt  and  tasted 
the  renowned  "  durian."  We  also  saw  and  ate  what 
the  English  call  "  hair  fruit."  It  is  about  the  size 
of  a  large  hen's  egg,  of  a  beautiful  red  color,  and  is 
covered  on  every  side  with  what  looks  like  coarse 
hair  sticking  out.  Inside  there  is  a  mucilaginous, 
gray-white  pulp  clinging  closely  to  the  central  pit, 
and  really  very  delicious. 


AN  ESSAY  ON  CROWS,  LIZARDS,  ETC. 


177 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

An  Essay  on  Crows,  Lizards,  Etc. 

Dedicated  by  a  world-ranging  tramp  (alias  "  Globe  Trotter," 
known  in  oriental  lands  as  "  Foss  Sahib  ")  to  his  beloved 
wife,  to  whom  he  would  not  presume  on  any  account  to 
send  a  typewritten  letter;  intended,  also,  for  the  informa- 
tion of  any  friends  whom  her  ladyship  may  graciously 
permit  to  read  it. 

BURMA  is  very  different  from  the  parts  of  India 
we  have  seen  before.  The  climate  is  much 
warmer  on  the  average  than  that  of  most  parts  of 
India,  for  though  the  summer  is  no  hotter,  the  win- 
ter is  not  nearly  so  cold.  The  houses  and  the  peo- 
ple are  very  different. 

Most  of  the  houses  are  built  of  teak  wood,  and 
are  left  unpainted,  or  painted  brown.  They  are 
set  up  on  posts  ten  feet  high,  to  keep  them  out  of 
the  mud  and  to  diminish  the  danger  of  fevers  in  the 
rainy  season.  The  parsonage  in  which  I  am  stay- 
ing is  of  this  description,  and  entirely  open  under- 
neath. There  are  broad  windows  or  blinds  on 
every  side  of  the  house,  for  the  utmost  possible  ven- 
tilation. 

The  nights  just  now  in  midwinter  are  very  com- 
fortable, hardly  requiring  a  blanket  on  the  bed. 
From  eleven  o'clock  in  the  morning  until  four  or 
five  in  the  afternoon  it  is  very  warm,  probably  above 


178      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

We  see  a  great  many  lizards  crawling  about  the 
ceilings  of  the  different  rooms,  and  frequently  hear 
the  merry  chirp  of  their  voices  while  they  are  hunt- 
ing flies,  which  chirp  is  so  loud  that  you  cannot 
fail  to  hear  it  in  the  midst  of  any  conversation. 
They  are  said  to  drop  down  on  people's  heads  and 
faces  now  and  then,  and  cause  a  peculiarly  cold  feel- 
ing. I  have  not  experienced  that  yet,  and  am  pro- 
tected at  night  by  a  mosquito  net. 

The  crows  are  all  about  the  trees  of  this  beauti- 
ful compound,  and  every  morning  and  evening,  ap- 
parently when  they  are  going  to  bed  or  getting  up 
for  the  day,  they  hold  a  very  noisy  pow-wow.  The 
caws  of  thousands  burst  forth  in  incessant  and  over- 
powering chatter  for  about  half  an  hour  at  a  time. 

In  this  compound  we  have  a  great  variety  of  trop- 
ical trees  and  fruits ;  the  tamarind,  jack,  peepul, 
bamboo,  mango,  banyan,  cocoanut  palm,  pineapple 
shrub,  and  many  others.  The  jack  fruit  grows  high 
up  on  the  sides  of  the  large  branches  and  gets  to  be 
as  large  as  a  fair-sized  watermelon. 

One  entertainment  to  which  the  missionaries  in 
India  and  Burma  are  frequently  called,  and  which 
they  find  most  unwelcome,  is  boils.  A  considera- 
ble per  cent  of  missionaries  are  afflicted  with  them 
more  or  less  every  year,  and  sometimes  they  are  a 
dreadful  trial,  not  only  to  their  sensibilities,  but  to 
their  health.  Babies  are  sometimes  born  with 
them,  and  little  children  often  suffer  with  them 
frightfully.  My  host  has  had  them  as  one  serious 
symptom  of  a  decline,  because  of  which  he  is  speed- 


AN  ESSAY  ON  CROWS,  LIZARDS,  ETC.  179 


ily  to  return  to  America.  He  tells  me  that  at  one 
time  he  had  more  than  a  hundred  at  once,  many  of 
them  larger  than  a  half  dollar.  The  natives,  how- 
ever, laugh  at  people  who  get  them  and  say,  "  O  ! 
if  you  have  boils  you  are  going  to  grow  fat." 

Burma  is  one  great  seat  of  the  Buddhist  religion, 
and  might  almost  be  termed  a  country  full  of  pago- 
das. One  of  the  largest,  most  expensive,  and  sa- 
cred pagodas  in  the  world  is  right  here  in  Rangoon, 
one  in  Ceylon  being  said  to  be  its  only  real  rival. 
We  saw  it  and  passed  all  around  it  yesterday.  It 
might  be  described  as  a  vast  pyramid,  about  three 
hundred  feet  square,  and  my  guidebook  says  three 
hundred  and  seventy  feet  in  height,  which  is  higher 
than  St.  Paul's  Cathedral  in  London.  It  is  covered 
with  gold  leaf,  and  the  colossal  upper  part  of  it 
with  solid  gold  set  with  jewels.  I  cannot  fitly  de- 
scribe it,  but  shall  bring  photographs  of  it  home  with 
me.  I  fear  the  word  pyramid  is  misleading.  From 
the  bottom  it  slopes  rapidly  inward,  and  rises  with 
peculiar  and  very  striking  architecture  somewhat  in 
the  form  of  a  great  broad-based  spire.  It  is  solid 
throughout,  except  a  small  subterranean  passage 
which  is  said  to  lead  to  the  place  where  its 
most  sacred  relics  are  enshrined,  the  chief  of 
which  is  a  golden  box  containing  eight  hairs  of 
Guatama,  who  was  the  last  incarnation  of  Buddha. 
In  numerous  shrines  all  around  the  base  of  the  pa- 
goda there  are  statues  of  Buddha,  most  of  them 
colossal,  sitting  cross-legged.  They  are  made  of 
alabaster  or  of  brass  and  they  are  almost  countless 


180      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

in  number.  These  shrines  are  themselves  smaller 
pagodas  of  similar  shape  to  the  great  one. 

The  religion  of  the  people  seems  to  consist  largely 
in  building  pagodas  and  offering  some  form  of  wor- 
ship in  them.  Excepting  a  few  of  immense  size, 
they  have  no  concern  to  keep  up  the  old  pagodas, 
but  let  them  fall  to  ruin,  and  build  new  ones ;  for 
those  who  build  new  ones  get  credit  with  the  gods, 
while  the  credit  of  repairing  old  ones  goes  to  those 
who  first  built  them.  Of  course  we  saw  multitudes 
of  priests,  a  few  of  them  homely,  haggard-looking 
old  ivomen,  smoking  cigars  which  in  size  and  shape 
resembled  molded  sperm  candles. 

The  writer  of  this  miscellaneous  essay,  with  such 
a  multitude  of  topics,  thinks  it  wise  just  here  to  in- 
sert an  item  which  might  better  befit  a  letter.  Last 
evening  we  went  to  the  prayer  meeting,  where 
there  were  present  about  one  hundred  and  fifty 
persons — English,  Eurasians, and  a  few  natives — and 
had  a  very  enjoyable  religious  hour.  Bishop  Foss 
read  and  expounded  the  last  chapter  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Philippians,  and  Bishop  Thoburn  and  Dr. 
Goucher  made  addresses.  We  then  went  into  the 
English-speaking  school  carried  on  by  two  ladies 
of  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society,  named 
Miss  Wisner  and  Miss  Keeler,  the  former  of  whom 
is  just  about  to  return  to  America  for  a  needed 
furlough.  We  took  tea  with  them  and  had  quite 
a  reception,  the  hall  being  decorated  with  many 
flags,  prominent  among  which  was  "  Old  Glory." 
For  variety,  at  this  meeting  addresses  were  deliv- 


AN  ESSAY  ON  CROWS,  LIZARDS,  ETC. 


181 


ered  by  Bishop  Thoburn,  Dr.  Gouchcr,  and  Bisliop 
Foss.  To-day  we  have  lunched  with  the  ladies  at 
the  school,  and  have  seen  the  school  gathered  to- 
gether, and  had  short  addresses  to  the  children  from 
the  same  three  dignitaries. 

To  wander  back  to  India  for  a  moment.  I  must 
remark  on  the  absurd  custom  of  the  English  class 
distinction  which  has  found  its  way  from  the  "  home 
country"  to  this  region  so  cursed  by  caste.  "Soci- 
ety "  in  India  is  regulated  after  the  strictest  possi- 
ble fashion,  and  no  "shopkeeper"  can  be  invited 
to  dine  or  be  on  terms  of  familiar  acquaintance 
in  many  a  home  where  all  clergymen,  missionaries, 
army  officers,  and  "merchants"  are  welcome.  So 
it  happens  that  one  of  the  wealthiest,  most  liberal, 
and  most  intelligent  men  in  India — who  has  made  a 
great  fortune,  being  probably  a  millionaire,  and  is 
the  proprietor  of  very  large  stores  in  Bombay,  Cal- 
cutta, and  many  other  cities  in  India  and  Burma, 
one  or  two  of  which  seem  to  me  pretty  nearly  half 
the  size  of  John  Wanamaker's — cannot  be  invited  to 
dine  in  anything  called  "society"  in  India,  simply 
because  he  sells  goods  by  retail  and  not  by  whole- 
sale. 


182      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


CHAPTER  XXni. 
Burma  as  a  Mission  Field. 

THE  unique  lifcwork  of  Adoniram  Judson  many 
years  ago  laid  the  name  of  Burma  on  the 
heart  of  the  Christian  world.  My  recent  visit 
to  its  chief  seaport — Rangoon — in  company  with 
Bishop  Thoburn  and  Dr.  Goucher,  to  inspect  our 
work  there,  led  me  to  think  of  Burma  as  one  of 
the  most  peculiar  and  interesting  mission  fields 
occupied  by  any  Church.  The  country  is  the 
most  prosperous  anywhere  in  British  India.  Its  soil 
is  exceedingly  fertile,  and  its  commerce  abundant ; 
the  chief  exports  in  very  large  quantities  being  rice — 
of  which  the  ship  by  which  I  went  from  Rangoon  to 
Singapore  carried  four  thousand  tons — and  teak  tim- 
ber, which  has  a  very  special  value  in  oriental  lands 
because  it  is  almost  the  only  building  timber  not 
eaten  by  white  ants. 

The  wages  of  the  laborers  in  Burma  are  more 
than  three  times  as  high  as  in  Northern  India.  Edu- 
cation is  generally  diffused  ;  social  and  domestic 
life  is  freer  and  happier  than  in  most  parts  of  India  ; 
there  are  no  distinctions  of  caste ;  the  rights  of 
women  are  much  more  generally  respected,  and  in 
many  cases  they  hold  the  family  purse,  and  even 
engage  in  trade  and  accumulate  property  independ- 
ently of  their  husbands.    The  population  of  this 


BURMA  AS  A  MISSION  FIELD. 


183 


comparatively  small  country  is  steadily  increasing, 
and  now  exceeds  eight  millions. 

The  prevailing  religion  in  Burma  is  Buddhism, 
while  that  of  the  most  of  India  is  Brahmanism,  out 
of  which  Buddhism  arose  in  the  spirit  of  reform 
about  B.  C.  500,  and  made  its  way  not  by  force,  like 
Mohammedanism,  but  by  the  superiority  and  at- 
tractiveness of  its  doctrines. 

Brahmanism  and  Buddhism  are  closely  interwoven, 
and  have  reacted  upon  each  other,  and  yet  are  very 
different.  Brahmanism  might  almost  be  described 
as  being  all  theology,  since  it  makes  God  every- 
thing, and  everything  God ;  whereas  Buddhism  is 
no  theology  at  all  ;  and,  indeed,  some  of  its  most 
careful  students  say  it  is  no  religion,  but  only  a  sys- 
tem of  duty,  morality,  and  benevolence,  without 
any  personal  God,  any  real  priest  (as  that  term  is 
generally  used),  or  any  prayer  in  the  sense  of  peti- 
tion or  supplication.  The  Buddhist  never  really 
prays,  but  tries  to  occupy  his  mind  with  meditations 
on  Buddha  in  the  hope  of  attaining  at  length  to 
Nirvana ;  which  means  extinction  of  worldly,  and 
indeed  of  personal,  existence  by  a  long  series  of 
transmigrations,  and  by  fearful  sufferings  in  an  in- 
definite number  of  the  one  hundred  and  thirty-six 
purgatorial  hells  waiting  to  receive  him. 

Of  course,  a  religion  which  has  no  personal  God, 
no  vicarious  sacrifice,  and  no  prayer,  and  which  relies 
solely  on  personal  merit,  cannot  be  a  transforming 
power  in  social  life  or  in  personal  morality,  whatever 
excellent  moral  precepts  it  may  inculcate.    No  fine 


184      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

rhetorical  quotations  from  Buddhistic  literature — 
and  many  such  can  be  produced  and  have  been 
published — ought  to  raise  in  any  Christian  mind  the 
slightest  question  of  the  very  urgent  need  for  the 
propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Burma  and  through- 
out all  this  oriental  world.  Lying,  thieving,  and  all 
forms  of  adroit  dishonesty  in  trade  abound  in  Burma 
to  an  extent  at  once  astonishing  and  instructive  to 
British  and  American  business  men ;  and  prostitu- 
tion is  so  omnipresent  and  shameless  as  to  be  a  bit- 
ter offense  to  all  Christian  foreigners. 

Earnest  and  successful  Christian  work  has  been 
done  in  Burma  for  most  of  the  current  century 
by  missionaries  of  the  Baptist  Church.  Until  faith 
and  heroism  and  fortitude  and  consecration  cease 
to  have  anymeaning,  the  name  of  Adoniram  Judson 
can  never  fail  to  have  a  foremost  place  in  the  his- 
tory of  Christian  missions,  the  pages  of  which  are 
illustrious  with  the  names  of  a  glorious  host  "  who 
through  faith  subdued  kingdoms,  obtained  promises, 
out  of  weakness  were  made  strong,  had  trial  of  cruel 
mockings  and  scourgings,  of  bonds  and  imprison- 
ments, of  whom  the  world  was  not  worthy." 

Originally  a  Congregationalist,  and  sent  out  as  a 
missionary  by  the  American  Board,  on  the  long  voy- 
age, by  careful  study  of  the  Scriptures,  Judson  was 
convinced  that  immersion  was  the  only  baptism, 
and  was  immersed  on  his  arrival  in  Calcutta.  This 
led  to  the  formation  of  the  Baptist  Foreign  Mission- 
ary Union,  and  the  adoption  of  Judson  and  his 
fellow-workers  as  its  first  missionaries.    Driven  from 


BURMA  AS  A  MISSION  FIELD. 


185 


India  by  the  East  India  Company,  and  threatened 
with  being  sent  back  to  England,  Judson  took  refuge 
in  Burma.  When  he  had  labored  there  five  years 
without  a  single  convert,  a  friend  of  his  wrote  him 
from  America,  asking  him  what  ground  he  had  for 
hoping  for  success  in  Burma.  His  answer  was: 
"  None  except  that  based  on  the  promise  of  the 
eternal  God  ;  but  I  would  not  leave  Burma  to  be 
made  a  king.  Ask  my  friends  to  furnish  me  bread 
for  a  few  years ;  and,  if  they  are  not  willing  to  risk 
so  much  on  so  hopeless  a  venture,  to  let  me  alone  a 
few  years,  and  they  certainly  will  hear  from  me 
again."  He  was  driven  from  place  to  place;  ar- 
rested, and  for  some  time  languished  in  prison;  his 
work  was  broken  up  from  time  to  time  by  wars ; 
his  health  was  broken  down  again  and  again  ;  yet 
he  founded  one  of  the  great  missions  of  the  world, 
translated  the  Bible  into  the  Burmese  language 
(making  his  own  grammars  and  dictionaries)  in  a 
version  so  idiomatic  and  excellent  as  to  be  for  Bur- 
ma what  Luther's  translation  is  for  Germany  ;  and, 
after  thirty-eight  years,  died  at  sea,  and  was  buried 
in  the  Bay  of  Bengal,  whose  waters  lave  the  shores 
of  his  beloved  Burma  and  have  mingled  his  dust 
with  all  oceans,  while  the  fragrance  of  his  example 
has  overspread  all  continents. 

The  work  of  the  Baptist  Mission  has  been  chiefly 
among  the  Karens,  though  it  has  been  constantly 
maintained  among  the  Burmans  also.  Its  success 
in  conversions  among  the  former  race  has  been 
many  times  greater  than  among  the  latter,  and  the 


186       FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


reason  for  this  is  tersely  stated  by  one  of  its  mis- 
sionaries, Dr.  Francis  Mason :  "  I  presume  I  have 
preached  the  Gospel  to  more  Burmans  than  Ka- 
rens ;  but  looking  at  the  results,  I  find  I  have  bap- 
tized about  one  Burman  to  fifty  Karens.  The 
reason  of  the  great  difference  in  these  results  is  the 
difference  in  the  preparation  of  the  two  nations  for 
the  reception  of  the  Gospel.  The  Burmans  are  our 
Pharisees  and  Sadducees ;  the  Karens,  our  publi- 
cans and  sinners."  A  like  difference,  arising  from 
similar  causes,  is  manifest  throughout  India,  and 
furnishes  a  most  suggestive  object  lesson  to  the 
Christian  Church.  Low-caste  and  outcast  peoples 
now,  as  in  the  time  of  Christ,  are  the  first  to  receive 
the  Gospel. 

The  Baptists  in  Southeastern  India,  among  the 
Telugus,  between  Madras  and  Calcutta,  at  a  place 
called  Ongole  and  in  its  vicinity,  have  had  very 
notable  success  in  securing  conversions.  Rev.  Mr. 
Clough  and  his  associates  many  years  ago  baptized 
two  thousand  two  hundred  and  twenty-two  persons 
in  a  single  day.  Within  recent  years  the  missionaries 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  Northern  In- 
dia have  in  several  years  baptized  more  than  ten 
thousand  converts  in  a  single  year. 

Some  other  Churches  which  have  devoted  them- 
selves almost  exclusively  to  the  educational  work, 
and  have  persistently  aimed  to  teach  and  win  peo- 
ple of  the  higher  castes,  have  scarcely  had  any  con- 
versions at  all.  A  missionary  of  another  branch  of 
the  Church  sadly  said  in  my  presence  that  if  there 


BURMA  AS  A  MISSION  FIELD. 


187 


should  be  even  two  or  three  conversions  among  his 
higli-caste  students,  he  had  no  doubt  that  his  school 
would  be  broken  up. 

The  work  of  Methodist  missions  is  in  some  re- 
spects quite  similar  to  that  of  the  Baptists.  Both 
have  laid  intenser  stress  on  directly  evangelistic 
effort  than  most  other  missionary  societies  have 
done.  Both  believe,  indeed,  in  schools,  and  liber- 
ally support  them,  but  do  not  think  Christ  intended 
his  messengers  to  be  chiefly  schoolmasters,  and 
especially  secular  schoolmasters.  Both  have  en- 
deavored in  all  lands  to  win  those  who  in  the  Sav- 
iour's time  "  heard  him  gladly."  Do  not  the  facts 
above  recited  give  evidence  that  in  India  both  have 
had  their  reward  ? 

While,  however,  we  thank  God  and  take  courage, 
it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  no  country  can  be 
evangelized  until  all  ranks  of  society  are  reached, 
from  the  bottom  to  the  top.  That  seems  to  be  the 
divine  order ;  at  first,  "  not  many  wise,  not  many 
mighty,  not  many  noble;"  but  at  length  all  these 
classes  must  be  transformed  by  the  Gospel.  When 
Paul  saw  "  an  effectual  door  open,"  he  gathered  in- 
spiration from  the  presence  of  "  many  adversaries." 
Missionary  labor  would  lack  its  greatest  triumphs 
if  it  had  not  held  on  through  weary  decades  with  few 
conversions  or  none  at  all. 

In  this  spirit  we  are  toiling  in  Burma.  Our  Mis- 
sionary Society  has  not  expended  a  dollar  there  for 
property,  and  is  supporting  but  one  missionary. 
Private  enterprise  maintains  a  second,  and  the 


188      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society  has  contrib- 
uted about  $1,000  for  property  and  supports  two 
teachers.  Valuable  school,  church,  and  parsonage 
properties  have  been  secured  by  local  contributions. 
We  have  some  Telugu,  Tamil,  and  Chinese  work, 
and  an  open  door  among  the  Burmans,  the  ruling 
race  ;  an  English-speaking  church  and  school, 
chiefly  Eurasian ;  nearly  five  hundred  communi- 
cants and  four  hundred  Sunday  school  scholars. 
We  need  three  more  missionaries  at  once — not  for 
protracted,  patient,  and  weary  waiting  like  Judson's, 
but  to  thrust  the  sickle  into  whitening  harvest 
fields. 


CURIOSITIES  OF  ORIENTAL  TRAVEL.  189 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 
Curiosities  of  Oriental  Travel* 

I BEGIN  where  my  feet  first  touched  India — that 
is,  in  Bombay.  Nothing  more  quickly  arrests 
the  attention  of  the  traveler  there  than  the  meth- 
ods of  disposing  of  the  bodies  of  the  dead,  chiefly 
the  Burning  Ghats  and  the  Towers  of  Silence;  the 
first  used  by  the  Hindus,  and  the  second  by  the 
Parsees.  The  Burning  Ghats  are  in  a  park  as  large 
as  a  very  large  city  block,  surrounded  by  a  stone 
wall  some  twelve  feet  high.  Inside  this  wall  every 
day  scores  of  corpses  are  burned,  each  on  a  separate 
pile  of  half  a  cord  of  very  dry  wood,  and  the  dense 
smoke  and  sickening  odors  wrap  you  round  as  you 
drive  along  one  of  the  chief  boulevards  of  the  city. 
Every  Hindu  feels  himself  favored  if  he  can  leave 
a  son  to  apply  the  torch  to  his  funeral  pile. 

The  Towers  of  Silence  are  located  in  a  very 
beautiful  park  on  Malabar  Hill,  the  highest  spot  in 
the  city,  overlooking  the  ocean  and  in  close  prox- 
imity to  the  finest  residences.  There  are  six  of 
these  towers,  all  very  much  alike.  The  one  I  ex- 
amined is  simply  a  great  circular  wall,  very  thick 
and  solid,  twenty-five  feet  high  and  one  hundred 
feet  in  diameter,  entirely  open  to  the  sky  and  with 
but  a  single  narrow  entrance  on  the  level  of  the 
ground.    About  ten  feet  from  the  ground  there  is 


190      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

an  inclined  grating  of  iron  bars  sloping  gradually 
toward  the  center,  divided  into  three  circular  rows, 
the  outer  row  for  the  corpses  of  men,  the  next  for 
women,  and  the  next  for  children.  After  brief  and 
very  strange  ceremonies  the  corpse  is  laid  on  this 
grating,  and  in  ten  minutes  is  stripped  of  every 
particle  of  flesh  by  the  vultures — great,  grewsome 
creatures  as  large  as  a  turkey — more  than  fifty  of 
which  I  saw  roosting  on  the  wall,  and  hundreds 
flying  overhead,  waiting  for  their  prey. 

The  flora  of  India  and  Malaysia  can  be  presented 
here  only  by  a  few  notable  specimens.  In  the  Bo- 
tanical Gardens  near  Calcutta  I  saw  one  of  the  two 
or  three  largest  and  finest  banyan  trees  in  the 
world.  It  has  been  carefully  cultivated  for  nearly 
one  hundred  years,  and  covers  an  area  of  an  acre  and 
three  quarters,  extending  its  branches  over  a  vast 
ellipse  three  hundred  and  thirty  feet  in  length  and 
two  hundred  and  seventy  feet  in  width.  It  has 
three  hundred  and  seventy-eight  trunks  of  various 
sizes  rooted  in  the  ground.  Many  of  these  rooted 
themselves,  but  a  great  many  more  were  carefully 
planted.  Thousands  of  little  rootlets  are  let  down 
from  the  branches  and  swing  in  the  air  like  strings. 
Such  of  these  as  are  properly  located,  at  fit  dis- 
tances from  trunks  already  growing,  are  inclosed  in 
hollow  bamboos,  rooted  in  the  ground,  and  are 
thus  protected  until  they  become  strong  enough  to 
stand  alone.  In  many  cases  a  bough  starting  from 
the  great  central  trunk,  stretching  out  horizontally 
forty  or  fifty  feet,  becomes  larger  and  stronger 


CURIOSITIES  OF  ORIENTAL  TRAVEL.  191 


when  it  passes  another  and  younger  trunk  which 
has  become  large  and  vigorous.  There  seems  no 
natural  limit  to  which  a  banyan  can  be  spread  by 
such  culture. 

In  Singapore  I  saw  a  very  peculiar  plant,  very 
much  like  the  banana,  called  the  "  travelers'  tree." 
It  has  a  spongy,  fibrous  trunk  fifteen  or  twenty  feet 
in  height,  and,  from  this,  vast  leaves,  just  like  ba- 
nana leaves,  but  two  feet  wide  and  often  twelve  or 
fifteen  feet  long,  spread  out  on  two  opposite  sides — 
from  eighteen  to  twenty-four  of  them  in  all — making 
the  tree  look  exactly  like  an  immense  fan.  Each 
of  these  leaves  collects  the  dew  every  night,  and 
from  the  root  of  it  a  pint  of  water  may  be  drawn  in 
the  morning  by  boring  under  the  leaf  with  a  gimlet ; 
hence  the  name,  "travelers'  tree." 

The  pigeon  orchid  in  Singapore  and  all  about 
Malaysia  is  a  very  beautiful  snow-white  flower,  an 
inch  and  a  half  in  length,  and  in  the  perfect  form 
of  a  little  pigeon,  with  bill,  head,  neck,  and  body 
perfect,  wings  spread,  and  tail  raised.  A  very  re- 
markable fact  is  that  this  orchid,  which  flowers 
every  month,  sends  out  its  blossoms,  myriads  of 
them,  on  the  very  same  morning  throughout  all 
Singapore  and  the  region  around.  I  was  amply 
assured  by  many  witnesses  that  absolutely  every 
blossom  of  this  sort  appears  simultaneously  the 
same  day,  fades  the  next  day,  and  disappears  the 
third.  I  saw  this  wonderful  outburst  on  a  Sunday 
morning,  and  everybody  brought  a  handful  of  these 

orchids  to  church,  or  carried  them  about  the  streets, 
13 


192      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

or  took  them  home.  A  still  more  remarkable  fact 
is  that  the  same  flower  blooms  abundantly  every 
month  on  the  islands  within  a  hundred  miles  simul- 
taneously on  the  same  day,  but  on  a  diff"erent  day 
from  the  blossoming  day  in  Singapore. 

The  most  peculiar  fruit  I  found  in  the  torrid 
zone  is  the  "  durian."  It  is  in  the  oval  form  of  a 
cantaloupe  melon,  the  size  of  a  two-quart  pot,  cov- 
ered with  short,  sharp  thorns,  which  soften  when  it 
is  ripe,  and  is  of  a  beautiful  brownish-yellow  color. 
The  odor,  or  rather  the  malodor,  of  the  durian  is 
something  astonishing,  and  almost  horrible.  It  is 
suggestive  of  superannuated  onions,  stale  fish,  sul- 
phur springs,  and  a  half  dozen  other  bad  odors.  If 
you  pass  near  a  market  place  you  smell  them  a 
block  away.  Some  captains  of  vessels  will  not 
allow  them  on  board.  But  when  the  rind  is  broken 
and  thrown  away,  the  fruit  is  so  delicious  as  almost 
to  justify  the  characterization  of  it  by  the  great 
English  naturalist,  Alfred  Russel  Wallace.  After 
saying  that  "  the  smell  is  so  offensive  that  some 
people  can  never  bear  to  taste  it,"  he  goes  on  to  say : 

"  The  consistency  and  flavor  of  the  pulp  are  in- 
describable— a  rich,  butterlike  custard,  highly  fla- 
vored with  almonds,  gives  the  best  general  idea  of 
it ;  but  intermingled  with  it  come  wafts  of  flavor 
that  call  to  mind  cream  cheese,  onion  sauce,  brown 
sherry,  and  other  incongruities.  To  eat  a  durian  is 
a  new  sensation  worth  a  voyage  to  the  East  to  ex- 
perience. The  durian  and  the  orange  are  the  king 
and  queen  of  fruits." 


CURIOSITIES  OF  ORIENTAL  TRAVEL.  193 


The  fauna  of  India  also  treats  the  liaveler  to 
sundry  surprises.  Doubtless  many  Americans  think 
of  India  as  overrun  with  cobras  and  tigers,  and 
with  sundry  other  venomous  serpents  and  insects 
and  beasts  of  prey.  There  is  some  foundation  for 
such  supposition,  for  the  government  reports  show 
that  last  year  there  were  more  than  twenty-two 
thousand  persons  in  India  killed  by  snake  bites, 
and  about  the  same  number  by  beasts  of  prey; 
and  yet,  during  three  months  and  a  half  of  very  ex- 
tensive travel  in  that  country  I  never  saw  a  serpent 
or  a  beast  of  prey,  except  in  captivity. 

The  crows  of  India  command  attention.  They 
do  not,  as  in  this  country,  live  in  the  woods  and  fly 
high  over  villages.  So  far  from  this,  they  throng 
the  cities,  and  thousands  of  them  caw  about  the 
houses  at  sunrise  and  at  sunset  for  half  an  hour  to- 
gether, as  though  they  were  holding  an  angry  par- 
liament. The  India  crow  is  rather  smaller  than 
the  American,  has  a  longer  bill,  a  gray  sash  around 
his  neck,  and  a  dudish  strut.  He  is  very  fond  of 
human  society,  and  frees  his  mind  on  all  occasions. 
He  will  alight  on  a  low  roof  or  a  window  ledge 
near  where  you  are  sitting,  and  look  you  over,  first 
with  one  eye  and  then  with  the  other,  and  talk 
about  you,  telling  what  a  mean  fellow  you  are, 
wondering  where  you  came  from,  and  saying  the 
most  insulting  things  ;  and  if  you  drive  him  away 
he  is  quickly  back  again  to  renew  his  observations 
and  remarks.  Such  attentions  really  become,  after 
a  while,  very  annoying  and  even  exasperating.  One 


194      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

recent  traveler  ventures  the  opinion  that  the  India 
crow  must  have  passed  through  sundry  transmigra- 
tions in  previous  states  of  existence,  and  that  at 
least,  among  the  twenty-seven  things  suggested,  he 
must  have  been  a  fussy  old  woman,  a  dishonest 
lawyer,  a  politician,  a  thief,  a  blackguard,  and  an 
editor.  It  is  a  very  common  thing  for  crows  to 
swoop  down  and  snatch  the  bread  out  of  the  hands 
of  children,  or  the  steak  from  the  plate  of  a  care- 
less cook  as  he  goes  from  the  cook  house  to  the 
dining  room. 

The  monkeys  of  India  in  some  of  the  large  cit- 
ies are  still  more  annoying  and  thievish  than  the 
crows.  A  demure  old  monkey  will  sit  quietly  on 
the  edge  of  the  low  roof  of  a  one-story  house  in  the 
bazaar,  looking  as  though  he  were  fast  asleep,  but 
waiting  his  chance.  When  a  vender  of  cakes  and 
candies  comes  along  with  a  large  tray  on  his  head, 
the  instant  he  is  past  the  monkey  will  put  out  his 
long  arm  and  knock  the  tray  to  the  ground,  and  a 
dozen  other  monkeys  who  have  been  in  waiting  will 
snatch  up  half  its  contents  before  the  owner  can 
object. 

The  flying  fox  is  a  large  bat  weighing  about  a 
pound  and  a  half,  and  with  filmy  brown  wings 
which  spread  fully  four  feet  from  tip  to  tip.  I  saw 
many  thousands  of  them  flying  over  the  parks  in 
Lucknow,  while  the  coolies  beat  gongs  and  pans, 
and  screamed  loudly,  and  made  a  fierce  din  to  keep 
them  off,  because  they  are  so  destructive  to  all 
ripening  fruits  and  vegetables.    Throughout  the 


CURIOSITIES  OF  ORIENTAL  TRAVEL.  195 


day  they  hang  by  a  hook  at  the  joint  of  a  wing, 
with  their  wings  folded  around  their  bodies,  several 
hundred  of  them  on  the  branches  of  a  single  large 
tree.  They  do  not,  like  the  vampire  bat,  thirst  for 
blood,  but  are  entirely  herbivorous. 

On  the  whole,  the  greatest  of  the  curiosities 
which  I  saw  in  the  East  is  the  "  working  elephant" 
of  Burma.  Every  visitor  to  Rangoon  is  told  that 
the  two  great  sights  there  are  the  world-renowned 
pagoda  and  the  working  elephants.  These  huge 
beasts  are  employed  chiefly  in  getting  lumber  out 
of  the  forests  and  in  work  about  the  sawmills.  Ran- 
goon is  a  very  great  center  of  lumber  interests,  and 
has  several  extensive  sawmills.  Through  one  of 
these  we  were  courteously  shown  by  the  superin- 
tendent. 

There  were  nine  elephants  at  work.  They  had 
been  trained  to  all  the  work  you  can  conceive  of 
there  being  need  for  there,  and  they  did  it  with 
the  utmost  skill  and  expedition.  Of  course  a  ma- 
hout sat  on  the  back  of  each,  and  with  his  naked 
heels  and  a  sharp  iron  prod  and  his  voice  he  made 
the  elephant  understand  what  he  wanted  him  to 
do,  just  as  well  as  a  father  could  an  intelligent  boy. 
We  saw  them  pull  long  slabs,  two  or  three  at  a 
time,  out  from  the  floors  where  the  saw  had 
dropped  them,  drag  them  long  distances,  and  put 
them  into  piles. 

But  by  far  the  most  interesting  part  of  their 
work  was  the  piling  up  of  great  timbers  sawed 
square,  from  sixteen  to  twenty-two  inches  on  a 


196      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

side,  and  thirty-five  feet  long,  weighing  two  or 
three  tons  each.  Two  elephants  generally  worked 
at  one  timber,  and  they  put  them  into  a  large  pile 
which,  when  completed,  was  twelve  feet  high. 
They  lifted  them  with  their  trunks  and  tusks  in 
combined  action,  and  shoved  them  with  the  trunk 
and  one  tusk,  or  with  both  tusks,  or  with  a  foot, 
sometimes  with  the  trunk  resting  against  the  tim- 
ber as  a  cushion,  against  which  they  would  push 
with  foot  or  tusk.  None  of  their  tusks  reached 
nearly  to  the  ground,  having  been  cut  off  and 
shaped  by  sawing  and  filing  to  fit  them  for  their 
work.  When  an  elephant  was  commanded  to  lift 
one  end  of  such  a  large  timber,  he  would  bend 
both  knees,  or  get  down  on  one  knee,  until  he  could 
push  his  tusks  under  the  timber.  Then  he  would  put 
his  tusks  under  it  and  fall  back  with  a  great  pull, 
sometimes  lifting  one  of  his  hind  legs  to  balance 
the  weight  until  the  timber  was  raised  and  he  could 
stand  squarely  on  his  feet.  He  would  then  carry 
one  end  of  the  timber,  raise  his  head  as  high  as 
possible,  and  drop  the  end  of  the  timber  on  the 
pile.  Another-  elephant  would  then  push  at  the 
other  end,  and  presently  lift  it  with  his  tusks  until 
more  than  half  the  timber  rested  on  the  pile,  and 
then  tilt  it  up,  and,  raising  his  tusks  and  trunk  as 
high  as  he  could  reach,  would  push  the  timber 
along  to  its  resting  place.  They  also  take  the  tim- 
bers, when  wanted,  to  the  edge  of  the  river,  push 
them  into  the  water,  and  fit  them  into  rafts. 

They  are  kept  at  this  work  about  seven  hours  a 


CURIOSITIES  OF  ORIENTAL  TRAVEL. 


197 


day,  and  do  it  just  the  same  in  the  rainy  season, 
when  the  whole  yard  is  covered  with  deep  mud,  in 
which  they  go  floundering  about  with  mud  halfway 
up  their  legs.  I  was  told  by  the  superintendent 
that  these  elephants  weigh  about  four  tons  apiece, 
are  about  nine  feet  in  height,  and  cost,  before  they 
are  trained,  twelve  hundred  dollars  each,  and  that 
when  vv'ell  trained  they  cannot  be  bought  at  any 
price.  Our  friends  who  were  present  that  day  could 
find  no  words  fully  to  express  their  wonder  at  the 
marvelous  sagacity  and  skill  of  the  huge,  ungainly 
beasts. 


198      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 
Polyglot  Malaysia. 

MALAYSIA  is  the  general  designation  for  the 
Malay  Peninsula  and  the  immense  group  of 
islands  lying  southward  and  eastward  from  Singa- 
pore, and  between  the  China  Sea  and  Australia.  I 
might  also  have  said  group  of  immense  islands,  for 
Borneo,  New  Guinea,  Sumatra,  Java,  and  Celebes 
all  deserve  that  description. 

In  his  exceedingly  interesting  and  instructive 
book  on  the  Malay  Archipelago,  Mr.  Alfred  Russel 
Wallace  publishes  a  small  map  of  Borneo,  with 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland  in  the  center  of  it,  all  on 
the  same  scale,  and  the  island  completely  engulfs 
the  renowned  kingdom  in  a  sea  of  forests.  If  peo- 
pled as  densely  as  Sicily,  Borneo  would  have  as 
many  inhabitants  as  the  United  States.  Java  has 
a  dense  population,  and  no  doubt  all  the  islands  of 
the  group  will  rapidly  increase  in  population  as 
commerce  shall  develop  them. 

The  people  can  subsist  with  exceedingly  little 
cost,  a  single  sago  palm  yielding  food  enough  to 
support  a  man  a  year,  at  an  expense  of  only  three 
dollars,  Tapioca  grows  wild  by  the  roadside,  and 
its  roots  are  so  cheap  as  hardly  to  be  worth  taking 
to  market. 

The  startling  tidings  of  earthquakes  in  that  re- 


POLYGLOT  MALAYSIA. 


199 


gion  might  almost  lead  one  to  wonder  why  men 
should  care  to  live  there  ;  but  it  is  to  be  noticed 
that  Java,  which  is  more  shaken  by  earthquakes 
than  any  other  part  of  the  world,  is  densely  popu- 
lated, and  Borneo,  near  at  hand,  which  never  feels 
the  tremor  of  an  earthquake,  has  a  very  sparse 
population.  The  villages  on  the  sides  of  sundry 
half-active  volcanoes  are  also  suggestive  of  the  fact 
that  the  alarm  excited  by  great  calamities  in  nature 
quickly  passes  away. 

I  have  used  the  word  "polyglot."  The  location 
of  Singapore  makes  it  a  babel  for  almost  all  lan- 
guages, and  ships  of  all  nations  are  constantly  seen 
in  its  spacious  and  picturesque  harbor.  England, 
with  her  instinct  and  habit  of  mastery,  has  frown- 
ing fortresses  on  the  adjacent  hills  and  cliffs,  as  she 
has  at  Gibraltar,  Malta,  Suez,  and  Hong  Kong. 

Singapore  naturally,  by  virtue  of  its  location,  is 
a  great  strategic,  geographical,  commercial,  and 
political  center.  The  ships  from  all  Europe,  and 
from  Calcutta,  must  touch  there  on  their  way  to 
China  and  Japan.  I  met  there,  at  a  reception,  the 
General  Secretary  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible 
Society,  who  told  me  that  he  kept  on  sale  copies  of 
the  Scriptures  in  more  than  forty  languages  spoken 
there  and  in  the  adjacent  islands.  The  Rev.  H. 
L.  E.  Luering  has  made  a  list  of  fifty-seven  lan- 
guages spoken  in  the  region,  and  of  forty-three 
other  minor  dialects  to  which  no  names  have  been 
given.  He  is  himself  a  polyglot  man,  who  speaks 
eighteen  languages,  six  or  seven  of  them  fluently. 


200      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

Another  of  our  missionaries,  the  Rev.  W.  G.  Shel- 
labear,  has  translated  the  Gospel  of  John  into  the 
Malay  language,  and  he  is  invited  by  the  Bible  So- 
ciety to  translate  the  whole  New  Testament. 

What  a  field  for  missionary  activity !  If  Wal- 
lace, the  great  naturalist,  thought  it  worth  his 
while  to  spend  twelve  years  in  that  region,  purely 
for  the  purpose  of  scientific  observation,  and  pre- 
eminently to  secure  more  and  finer  specimens  of 
birds  of  paradise  and  orang-utangs,  what  shall  not 
the  servants  of  Christ  risk  to  spread  his  saving 
knowledge  among  the  people  ! 

We  have  no  mission  whatever  in  Borneo,  but  our 
missionaries  have  made  several  excursions  into  that 
country,  and  have  gathered  very  valuable  informa- 
tion. In  West  Borneo  there  is  a  savage  race  called 
the  Dyaks,  who  are  notorious  for  the  habit  of 
"  head  hunting."  No  youth  can  call  himself  a  man 
until  he  has  killed  at  least  one  enemy,  and  the 
skulls  of  all  victims  are  hung  up  directly  under  the 
roof  of  the  house  for  adornment,  some  houses  hav- 
ing scores  of  them. 

In  the  early  work  of  the  American  Board  in  Su- 
matra two  missionaries  were  killed  and  eaten  by 
cannibals.  When  Dr.  W.  F.  Oldham,  the  founder 
of  our  Malaysia  Mission,  visited  Java,  he  met  two 
Christian  young  men  from  Sumatra,  and  was  in- 
vited by  them  to  visit  their  country.  He  smiled 
and  said,  "  You  did  not  treat  the  first  missionaries 
there  very  kindly."  The  answer  was,  "  That  is 
true ;  but  that  was  a  long  time  ago ;  and  if  you 


POLYGLOT  MAYLASIA. 


201 


will  come  to  the  Battaks  now  we  will  promise  that 
we  will  not  eat  you." 

Another  of  our  missionaries,  Dr.  B.  F.  West,  had 
an  experience  near  Singapore  no  less  exciting  for 
the  moment,  and  probably  very  perilous.  He  was 
leisurely  walking  along  in  the  woods,  when  he 
chanced  to  notice  an  immense  boa  constrictor 
stretched  along  the  path  close  to  his  feet,  doubt- 
less waiting  near  the  stream  to  get  a  young  buffalo 
for  his  supper.  A  friend  afterward  asked  him, 
"  What  did  the  boa  constrictor  do  ?  "  *'  He  simply 
raised  his  head  a  little,"  he  replied,  "  but  made  no 
other  motion."  "And  what  did  you  do?"  "I 
raised  every  hair  on  my  head,  and  got  out  of  there 
as  fast  as  I  could." 

One  striking  fact  which  makes  Singapore  an  ex- 
ceedingly important  center  for  missionary  activity 
is  the  present  and  increasing  power  of  the  Chinese. 
The  Chinaman  is  the  Anglo-Saxon  of  the  tropics, 
and  that  part  of  the  world  has  very  much  to  hope 
from  his  presence.  Many  of  the  Chinese  are  al- 
ready rich,  and  are  among  the  most  prosperous 
merchants.  I  saw  them  riding  in  their  splendid 
English  carriages  on  the  boulevards  and  in  the 
parks.  They  seem  also  to  be  filled  with  public 
spirit  and  with  loyal  devotion  to  the  British  gov- 
ernment. Several  of  them  have  been  among  the 
most  generous  benefactors  of  our  school  work,  to 
which  they  make  frequent,  and  some  of  them  an- 
nual, contributions. 

The  Philippine  Islands  are  a  part  of  Malaysia, 


202      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

lying  off  several  hundred  miles  northeast  from 
Singapore.  For  four  centuries  they  have  been 
showing  what  a  Roman  Catholic  Church  govern- 
ment can  do  among  a  semibarbarous  people.  The 
result  is  akin  to  the  centuries  of  such  measureless 
misrule  in  Mexico.  With  the  changed  conditions 
of  the  Philippines  no  doubt  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  will  begin  to  educate  the  common  people, 
which  it  never  does  unless  compelled  by  the  exam- 
ple of  Protestant  missionaries. 

Singapore  is  one  of  the  most  unique  places  I  have 
visited.  It  is  only  ninety  miles  north  of  the  equa- 
tor, and  so  furnishes  a  good  specimen  of  the  torrid 
zone,  in  respect  to  climate,  people,  productions, 
etc. 

It  is  in  a  region  of  almost  perpetual  dampness, 
rain  falling  every  week,  and  almost  every  day,  in 
the  year.  The  dampness  is  so  great  that  almost 
everything  molds  and  mildews.  The  houses  are 
built  without  any  glass  windows,  but  with  numer- 
ous large  doors  or  window  spaces  on  every  side, 
closed  with  blinds  or  light  screens.  They  have  no 
stoves  in  them,  and  no  chimneys,  the  cooking  being 
done  in  little  outhouses  or  in  the  open  air. 

The  variety  and  luxuriance  of  its  perpetually 
green  vegetation  cannot  be  described.  There  is  no 
such  profusion  of  flowers  and  flowering  trees  as  in 
the  temperate  zones  ;  but  the  wealth  of  all  shades 
of  green  is  wonderful.  The  Botanical  Gardens  con- 
tain about  six  hundred  varieties  of  palms  from  all 
lands,  only  sixty  of  which  are  indigenous.    I  saw 


POLYGLOT  MAYLASIA. 


203 


there  the  sago,  tapioca,  cinnamon,  clove,  nutmeg, 
mango,  tamarind,  banana,  lime,  cocoanut,  date, 
guava,  orchid,  and  almost  every  other  tropical  fruit, 
spice,  nut,  and  plant  of  which  one  can  or  cannot 
think.  I  had  the  rare  advantage  of  having  at  my 
side  our  "  polyglot  "  missionary.  Dr.  Luering,  a  na- 
tive German.  He  seems  to  know  everything  about 
the  fauna  and  flora  of  the  region,  and  is  a  most 
agreeable  gentleman,  a  humble  Christian,  and  a 
devoted  and  successful  missionary,  especially  to  the 
Chinese  and  Malays. 

The  comparatively  small  Malay  Peninsula  lying 
directly  north  of  here  is  said  to  furnish  more  than 
half  the  tin  for  all  the  world,  and  there  are  great 
tin  smelting  works  in  this  city.  The  tin  ore  is 
chiefly  brought  down  from  the  mines  on  the  backs 
of  elephants,  by  jungle  paths  on  which  no  wagons 
could  run.  The  elephants  are  said  to  have  a  par- 
ticular dislike  to  bicycles,  and  still  more  for  the 
bells  and  whistles  used  by  the  riders.  I  have  been 
told  of  several  cases  in  which  they  picked  up  bicy- 
cles and  flung  them  off  into  the  fields. 

I  have  said  elsewhere  that  the  Northwest  India 
Conference  has  the  "  swing  of  conquest."  I  must 
now  say  that  the  Malaysia  Mission  Conference  has 
the  genius  of  expansion.  I  could  select  from  the 
number  of  its  present  missionaries  a  first-rate  man 
to  be  the  founder  of  missions  in  Bangkok  or  Ma- 
nila or  Borneo  or  Sumatra,  and  could  find  men  who 
are  anxious  to  go  to  open  the  work  in  these  places. 

Our  deaconess  home  in  Singapore  is  located  on 


204      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


one  of  the  finest  eminences  in  the  city,  where  it 
gets  all  the  cooling  breezes  and  overlooks  the  mag- 
nificent harbor.  It  is  flanked  by  two  very  com. 
fortable  and  spacious  missionary  homes,  and  is  in 
the  midst  of  a  perfect  paradise  of  splendid  trees. 
It  is  the  commodious  home  of  two  or  three  deacon- 
esses and  a  girls'  (native)  school  of  fifty  or  sixty. 
The  Anglo-Chinese  boys'  school  numbers  nearly 
six  hundred  pupils,  of  twenty-four  nationalities  and 
languages ;  and  there  is  a  separate  large  boarding 
school  for  young  men. 

Our  work  in  Singapore  is  carried  on  in  several 
different  languages.  Our  school  and  church  prop- 
erties in  Penang  and  Singapore,  as  also  in  Ran- 
goon, have  been  secured  very  largely  by  the  gifts 
of  residents,  and  some  of  them,  which  are  exceed- 
ingly valuable,  have  not  cost  the  Missionary  Society 
a  single  dollar.  The  outlook  is  excellent,  and  the 
possibilities  of  the  future  in  that  strangely  develop- 
ing region  are  unimaginably  great. 


HOMEWARD  BOUND. 


205 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 
Homeward  Bound. 

Steamship  Melbourne,  \ 
NEAR  Saigon,  February  23,  1898.  \ 

AT  Singapore  I  finished  the  last  official  duties 
for  which  I  had  been  commissioned  to  un- 
dertake this  tour.  We  were  then  more  than  half 
way  around  the  world.  The  homeward  trip  would 
be  shorter,  quicker,  and  cheaper  eastward  than  west- 
ward. "  Flowery  Japan "  looked  inviting,  and 
"home,  sweet  home  "  looked  more  so;  so  we  took 
leave  of  our  little  band  of  missionaries  at  Singa- 
pore, committing  them  to  God  and  the  word  of  his 
grace,  as  they  did  us,  and  embarked  for  far-away 
Yokohama. 

Thus  far  the  sea  has  been  faultlessly  smooth, 
and  for  one-half  day  absolutely  glassy — the  tradi- 
tional "  mill  pond  "  which  I  have  often  heard  of  but 
never  saw  before  on  salt  water — not  a  ripple,  and 
only  a  very  slight  swell. 

This  French  vessel  stopped  thirty-three  hours 
at  Saigon,  the  port  of  the  French  colony  of  Indo- 
China,  commonly  called  Cochin-China.  Saigon  is 
forty  miles  up  a  river,  and  no  other  great  steamship 
line  calls  there.  I  was  glad  of  an  opportunity  to 
see  so  odd  and  interesting  a  place,  and  one  which 
so  few  tourists  visit.    It  is  intensely  Frenchy,  artis- 


206      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


tically  built,  elegantly  shaded,  and  has  numerous 
government  buildings  and  naval  works.  There  were 
several  French  war  vessels  in  the  harbor,  and  mer- 
chant ships  of  various  countries.  Large  quantities 
of  rice  are  exported. 

The  weather  is  hot,  and  one  night  in  Saigon 
was  made  hideous  by  mosquitoes.  Last  night  I 
slept  well,  thanks  to  eucalyptus  oil  and  the  breeze 
blowing  into  the  portholes.  To-day  is  cool  and 
most  refreshing. 

We  have  a  very  few  first-class  passengers,  includ- 
ing three  Chinese  merchants  and  three  Japanese. 
Doctor  Goucher  and  I  have  exclusive  use  of  two  of 
the  best  staterooms.  The  table  is  excellent,  the 
decks  spacious.  We  have  found  pleasant  English 
and  German  acquaintances,  and  have  provided  our- 
selves with  entertaining  books,  both  grave  and  gay; 
so  that  the  prospect  of  two  weeks  on  this  ship, 
where  we  are  likely  to  have  pleasant  seas,  is  not  un- 
welcome after  the  incessant  labors  of  the  recent 
months.  Now  that  we  are  more  than  half  way 
around,  every  turn  of  the  screw  seems  to  bring  us 
appreciably  nearer  home. 

Near  Nagasaki,  Japan,  ) 
Saturday  evening,  March  5.  f 

An  interval  of  nine  days,  in  which  I  have  car- 
ried this  letter  on  the  mail  steamer,  as  I  expect  to  do 
for  five  days  more.  Alas!  for  those  words  in  which 
I  predicted  "  pleasant  seas,"  written  after  more  than 
forty  days  on  many  seas  without  a  single  storm. 


HOMEWARD  BOUND. 


207 


That  night  we  had  a  heavy  storm,  and  we  have  had 
two  simoons  since,  though  not  quite  such  roaring, 
tremendous  winds  as  I  once  had  on  the  Atlantic. 
That  wind  was  graded  from  eight  to  nine  on  a  scale 
on  which  twelve  was  a  hurricane.  These  have  been 
from  five  to  seven  ;  nothing  serious  to  a  sailor,  who 
would  speak  of  them  simply  as  "nasty  weather," 
but  very  uncomfortable  to  a  landsman.  The  vessel 
has  pitched  more  than  it  has  rolled,  the  wind  being 
almost  dead  ahead.  This  is  the  regular  time  for 
the  monsoon  which  shrieks  along  this  coast  for  eight 
or  ten  weeks. 

This  vessel  is  not  fitted  up  for  cold  oceans,  al- 
though its  regular  route  is  from  Marseilles  to  Yoko- 
hama. The  cabin,  which  is  large  enough  to  seat 
fifty  persons  at  table,  has  no  means  of  heat  except 
two  small  porcelain  stoves,  such  as  are  used  in  Ger- 
many and  Italy  ;  and  when  the  fire  is  doing  its  best 
I  can  keep  my  hand  on  these  stoves  for  fifteen  sec- 
onds. The  thermometer  stands  at  40°  on  deck,  and 
47°  in  our  room. 

Our  late  start  from  Singapore  and  the  delay  of 
the  vessel  by  the  monsoon  destroyed  our  last  hope 
of  turning  aside  from  Hong  Kong  and  visiting  Foo- 
Chow  for  a  few  days,  as  we  had  greatly  desired  to 
do.  We  stopped  at  Hong  Kong  a  few  hours,  under 
an  angry  sky,  which  poured  down  a  steady,  cold 
rain. 

We  reached  our  anchorage  at  Woosang,  the 
port  of  Shanghai,  at  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning  of 
Thursday,  Shanghai  being  twelve  miles  up  the 
14' 


208      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

river  Yang-tse-Kiang.  Again  there  was  a  very  cold 
rain  and  a  strong  wind,  but  we  wrapped  ourselves 
as  warmly  as  possible  and  stepped  aboard  the  little 
puffing  tug  Whang  Poo,  the  cabin  of  which  was 
so  crowded  that  many  had  to  stand  during  all  the 
one  and  a  half  hours  we  were  steaming  up  to 
Shanghai. 

We  planned  to  take  a  cab  and  keep  it  until  all 
our  errands  were  done,  but  not  one  was  to  be  had 
at  the  landing  of  the  steamer  in  Shanghai,  so  we 
each  took  a  jinrikisha,  and  protected  ourselves 
from  the  rain  as  best  we  could.  Toward  evening 
we  stopped  at  the  Astor  House,  the  best  hotel  in 
Shanghai,  and  quite  good.  All  the  servants  are 
sleek,  neatly  dressed  Chinamen.  We  got  a  good 
large  room  with  two  beds,  ordered  it  thoroughly 
heated,  and  found  in  it  a  roaring  coal  fire  in  a  little 
cylinder  stove,  made  in  1872  in  Peekskill,  New 
York. 

Another  start  in  the  rain  the  next  day  at  six  in 
the  morning,  and  we  were  off  for  Japan. 

Two  days  later  we  had  another  unpleasant  sur- 
prise. We  had  strongly  hoped  to  spend  the  most 
of  the  day  at  Nagasaki  and  see  our  missionaries 
there.  On  Saturday  we  were  assured  by  our  pilot 
that  we  would  arrive  at  midnight  and  be  at  Naga- 
saki three  or  four  hours  on  Sunday  forenoon,  so  we 
went  to  sleep  with  the  delightful  prospect  of  wor- 
shiping with  our  missionaries  on  Sunday  morning 
and  so  giving  them  the  always  welcome  greeting  of 
the  home  Church.    But  the  coaling  of  the  ship  was 


HOMEWARD  BOUND. 


209 


done  in  the  niglit,  and  her  engines  moved  at  sun- 
rise, just  in  time  for  us  to  get  a  glimpse  of  the  city 
and  the  incomi^arably  beautiful  harbor,  but  none  of 
our  missionaries ! 

Yokohama,  Thursday,  March  lo. 
After  a  bright  Sabbath,  just  before  sunset  we 
reached  the  narrow,  tortuous  straits  at  Shimono- 
seki,  about  twelve  miles  in  length,  through  which 
we  entered  the  famous  Inland  Sea,  over  *-he  waters 
of  which  we  glided  under  the  brilliant  light  of  a 
silvery  full  moon.  The  scenery  all  the  next  day, 
among  mountainous  islands  of  marvelous  greenness 
and  beauty,  justifies  the  highest  encomiums  of  trav- 
elers on  the  Inland  Sea.  It  is  a  vast,  magnificent, 
and  glorified  Lake  George  and  Lake  Tahoe  com- 
bined. 

From  Singapore  to  Hong  Kong,  a  full  week,  we 
had  on  board  a  Romish  cardinal,  six  priests,  and 
five  very  oddly  dressed  nuns.  Every  morning  when 
the  cardinal  appeared  on  deck  the  priests  and  nuns 
hastened  forward  and  embraced  his  feet,  and  kissed 
the  ring  on  his  hand.  He  took  these  attentions 
with  the  utmost  composure,  as  a  mere  matter  of 
form,  and  silently  walked  away. 

At  Kobe  we  left  the  steamer  to  come  some  three 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  by  rail  to  this  place.  We 
were  obliged  to  get  passports  and  show  them  at  the 
ticket  office.  The  novel  and  striking  scenery,  the 
odd-looking  houses,  the  great  profusion  of  beautiful 
plum  blossoms,  the  green  fields  and  gardens,  and 


210     FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

the  omnipresent  cultivation  of  rice  and  tea  made 
the  six  hours'  journey  to  Nagoya  seem  very  short, 
and  filled  it  with  pictures  to  be  remembered. 

We  telegraphed  to  Dr,  D.  S.  Spencer,  the  pre. 
siding  elder  there,  who,  with  our  Japanese  pastors, 
met  us  at  the  station,  and  took  us  in  jinrikishas  to 
his  home,  where  we  had  most  cordial  and  consider- 
ate entertainment  for  twenty-four  hours.  We  called 
at  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  School;  met 
Misses  Bender,  Russell,  and  Heaton  ;  saw  the  old 
castle,  the  most  famous  one  in  Japan ;  visited  the 
cloisonne  factory  and  the  pottery  works,  for  which 
Nagoya  is  noted  ;  and  in  the  evening  had  a  very 
curious  reception,  chiefly  Japanese,  at  the  presiding 
elder's  residence. 

Nagoya  was  the  center  of  the  great  earthquake 
of  six  or  eight  years  ago.  We  afterward  saw  one 
of  our  missionaries,  who  was  pastor  there  at  that 
time,  who  was  stopped  by  the  earthquake  in  the 
midst  of  a  prayer  in  a  meeting  he  was  leading,  and 
in  rushing  out  saw  four  persons  killed  by  the  falling 
of  the  chimney,  which  was  thrown  from  the  church 
just  over  his  head. 

We  reached  Yokohama  at  half  past  ten  o'clock  in 
the  evening,  and  were  welcomed  at  the  station  not 
only  by  our  missionaries  resident  in  that  city,  but 
by  several  Japanese  pastors,  who  had  come  eight- 
een miles  from  Tokyo  to  greet  us  and  had  to  re- 
turn at  midnight.  On  Thursday  evening  we  had 
another  Japanese  reception  in  the  church,  and  made 
and  heard  several  speeches.   The  people  welcomed 


HOMEWARD  BOUND. 


211 


US  with  the  greatest  interest  and  cordiahty,  and 
were  deeply  interested,  not  only  in  the  greetings  of 
the  home  Church,  but  also  in  our  reports  of  the 
wonderful  work  of  God's  grace  in  India. 

Tokyo,  Friday,  March  ii. 

You  would  be  amused  to  see  us  flying  round 
this  city  in  jinrikishas,  in  winter  overcoats  with  the 
collars  turned  up  over  our  ears,  and  with  our  shawls 
carefully  tucked  in  around  our  feet,  while  our  swift 
trotting  coolies  are  barelegged  and  bareheaded. 

We  a,re  very  comfortable  and  are  most  cordially 
entertained ;  Dr.  Goucher  by  his  old  friend.  Dr.  So- 
per,  and  I  by  the  Rev.  H.  B.  Swartz  and  his  charm- 
ing family.  Another  reception,  of  course,  awaited 
us  on  our  arrival  here  yesterday  afternoon.  It  was 
informal,  social,  and  very  agreeable.  Besides  all 
our  preachers  and  teachers,  native  and  foreign,  and 
many  laymen  and  ladies,  there  were  present  several 
Canadian  Methodist  and  other  missionaries. 

Yokohama,  Thursday,  March  24. 
Our  two  weeks  here  have  been  crowded  full  of 
"sights  and  insights  "  of  exceeding  interest  which, 
however,  cannot  be  described  in  detail  in  this  too 
hasty  letter.  The  days  were  too  few  for  the  com- 
plete visitation  of  our  publishing  houses,  churches, 
schools,  orphanages, and  missionary  homes  inTokyo, 
a  city  of  more  than  a  million  inhabitants,  the  splen- 
did capital  of  Japan,  and  in  Yokohama,  the  greatest 
seaport  of  the  country.    Then  there  are  the  pal- 


212     FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


aces  and  the  government  university,  heathen  tem- 
ples, two  really  great  museums,  the  Greek  Catholic 
cathedral,  the  bazaars  ;  and,  above  all  else  in  per- 
petual interest,  the  streets  thronged  with  the  pecu- 
liar people  ;  scarcely  a  carnage  anywhere  to  be  seen, 
but  twelve  thousand  jinrikishas  hurrying  to  and  fro 
everywhere. 

Numerous  social  entertainments  gave  us  oppor- 
tunity to  meet  our  missionaries  and  many  native 
workers.  We  had  also  two  unique  native  banquets 
and  a  ceremonial  tea.  Can  I  ever  forget  them  ! 
We  had  rain,  wind,  snow;  ice,  slush,  and  mud; 
three  brilliant  days,  and  one  glorious  view  of  Fuji- 
yama, which  certainly  ranks  among  the  most  ma- 
jestic mountains  in  the  world. 

Steamship  Empress  of  Japan,  near  the  ) 
Middle  of  the  Pacific  Ocean,  March  31.  j 

On  Friday  noon,  March  25,  a  large  number  of  our 
missionaries  and  native  Christians  "  accompanied  us 
to  the  ship"  and  waved  their  farewells,  as  our  swift 
palace  pushed  out  for  its  voyage  of  forty-four  hun- 
dred miles  to  Vancouver. 

We  have  a  very  pleasant  company  on  board, 
including  the  wife  and  son  of  one  of  our  mission- 
aries, the  daughter  of  another  missionary  on  her 
way  to  America  to  attend  the  Woman's  College  of 
Baltimore,  and  three  missionary  families  of  other 
denominations.  We  have  had  two  Wednesdays  in 
one  week,  two  days  reckoned  as  March  31,  and 
thirty-two  days  in  the  month  of  March. 


HOMEWARD  BOUND 


213 


Our  present  voyage  has  not  been  as  fine  as 
some  which  have  preceded  it.  Our  ship  is  large, 
staunch,  and  elegant.  There  are  a  very  fine  dining 
hall  and  library,  and  spacious  and  commodious 
staterooms,  an  ample  bill  of  fare,  including  Cali- 
fornia oranges  for  lunch  and  dinner  ;  but  the  ship 
rolls  and  rolls  and  rolls  on  the  slightest  provocation, 
sometimes  until  our  porthole  is  far  under  water ; 
and  though  we  have  had  no  storm,  but  only  brisk 
breezes  and  moderate  waves,  it  is  often  difficult  to 
keep  your  seat  in  a  chair  without  holding  fast  to  its 
arms. 

Tuesday,  April  5. 
We  have  now  come  to  the  dock  at  Victoria, 
eighty  miles  before  reaching  our  journey's  end. 
Several  more  uncomfortable  days  have  passed, 
with  no  bad  storm,  but  with  a  rough  sea  and  a 
rolling  ship. 

This  is  a  quarantine  station,  and  we  stop  here 
all  night  to  bathe  our  five  hundred  and  nineteen 
Chinese  and  ninety-nine  Japanese  immigrants,  and 
to  steam  their  clothes. 

Vancouver,  Canada,  Wednesday,  April  6. 
After  six  months'  absence  I  was  most  happy,  last 
evening,  to  see  across  a  narrow  bay  the  shores  of 
my  own  country  again. 

Philadelphia,  Wednesday,  April  13,  1898. 
Home  again  !    From  Vancouver  we  came  by  the 
Canadian  Pacific  Railway  over  the  magnificent  Sel- 


214      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

kirk  and  Rocky  Mountain  ranges,  which  were  clad 
in  spotless  ermine ;  and  crossed  the  frozen  plains  of 
Canada.  We  had  a  delightful  Sabbath  day's  rest 
in  Minneapolis  in  the  home  of  one  of  my  daughters. 
Then  again  swiftly  homeward.  The  faithful  friend 
who  had  been  my  companion  all  round  the  globe 
left  me  at  Harrisburg,  a  hundred  miles  from  my 
home,  under  the  constraint  of  a  mighty  magnetism 
which  turned  him  aside  to  his  home  in  Baltimore. 


WELCOME  HOME. 


215 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 
Welcome  Home. 

ON  my  return  from  India  and  Malaysia  a  public 
reception  was  accorded  me,  under  the  man- 
agement of  a  committee  of  eleven  ministers  ap- 
pointed by  the  Philadelphia  Preachers'  Meeting  and 
eleven  laymen  appointed  by  the  Philadelphia  Lay- 
men's Association.  The  reception  was  given  in 
the  Arch  Street  Church,  on  Tuesday  evening,  April 
21,  1898.  The  address  of  welcome  was  read  by  the 
Rev.  T.  B.  Neely,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  and  in  response  I 
made  the  following 

Address.* 

Mr.  President  and  Christian  Friends  : 
Before  I  utter  a  single  word  in  glad  and  grateful 
acknowledgment  of  this  very  cordial  and  honorable 
address  of  welcome,  I  must  be  allowed  to  indulge 
my  heart  for  an  instant  in  recalling  those  beloved 
and  lamented  fellow-workers  of  ours  who  were  with 
us  last  September  and  are  not  visibly  present  now. 
"  They  rest  from  their  labors  and  their  works  do 
follow  them  ;"  and  our  hearts  follow  them  in  high 
congratulation  on  the  triumph  which  they  have 
attained  and  in  solemn  sadness  on  account  of  our 
sorrow. 

*Much  condensed  here  to  avoid  the  repetition  of  facts  fully 
stated  in  preceding  chapters. 


216      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

Mr.  President,  I  can  find  no  words  to  utter  the 
high  appreciation  which  I  feel  in  my  heart  of  hearts 
for  this  welcome  which  has  been  so  admirably 
voiced  in  the  address  of  the  committee  of  minis- 
ters and  laymen — men  whom  I  am  glad  to  honor — 
and  also  has  had  expression  to  my  sight  in  the  pres- 
ence of  this  great  concourse,  and  in  the  smiling 
faces  and  gleaming  eyes  of  this  multitude  of  the 
picked  Methodists  and  other  Christians,  as  I  per- 
ceive, of  Philadelphia  and  its  vicinity. 

Permit  me,  before  addressing  myself  to  the 
chief  purpose  of  my  standing  here  to-night  and  of 
your  coming  here  to  hear  me,  some  observations  of 
a  general  sort,  such  as  would  occur  to  any  tourist, 
relating  to  matters  which  must  arouse  the  attention 
of  every  intelligent  observer  who  travels  widely  in 
the  East. 

In  making  the  circuit  of  the  earth  I  have  trav- 
eled thirty-three  thousand  miles — twenty-one  thou- 
sand of  them  by  sea — sixty-six  days  on  almost  all 
the  seas  and  oceans  in  the  north  temperate  and 
northern  part  of  the  torrid  zones,  with  no  hurri- 
canes, no  storm  at  all  until  I  had  been  forty  days 
on  many  seas,  then  two  or  three  days  and  nights  a 
little  exciting  to  a  landsman,  but  nothing  to  a 
sailor  ;  not  an  hour  of  fog,  and  not  a  minute  of  that 
grievous  central  physical  disturbance  which  makes 
the  sea  such  a  terror  to  multitudes  of  my  fellow- 
men. 

On  reaching  Bombay  I  was  furnished  at  the 
outset  with  abundant  knowledge  concerning  that 


WELCOME  HOME. 


217 


great  scourge  which  devastated  that  city  and  some 
other  places  in  India  in  the  winter  of  1896-97,  the 
bubonic  plague.  It  is  chiefly  a  winter  disease  ; 
last  summer  it  almost  disappeared.  When  I  was  in 
Bombay  in  November  and  December  the  death 
rate  from  the  plague  ranged  from  four  to  fourteen 
a  day,  touching  no  Europeans  at  all  ;  in  January 
and  February  it  rapidly  increased;  and  I  have  just 
this  week  received  a  letter  from  Bishop  Thoburn, 
in  which  he  states  concerning  it  some  particulars 
such  as  I  have  not  lately  seen  in  print,  which  I  give 
you  very  briefly.  The  letter  bears  date  Bombay, 
March  8.  He  says :  "  I  find  all  well ;  but  the 
plague  has  not  abated  in  the  least.  The  deaths 
yesterday  were  one  hundred  and  ninety-three,  and 
the  daily  death  rate  has  been  in  the  neighborhood 
of  two  hundred  for  two  weeks  past.  Europeans 
still  escape,  for  the  most  part."  So  that,  although 
the  efforts  to  stamp  out  the  plague  have  been  par- 
tially successful,  there  is  deep  apprehension  and 
fear  that  it  may  spread  to  other  great  cities  in 
India  on  the  Eastern  coast,  whose  filthy  condition 
certainly  invites  it. 

No  words  can  well  express  the  admiration 
which  the  British  government  and  the  India  de- 
partment of  it  deserve  for  their  heroic  efforts,  with 
unstinted  use  of  money  and  of  all  available  scien- 
tific skill,  to  limit,  and,  if  possible,  to  destroy  this 
awful  scourge  ;  and  the  same  may  be  said  of  the 
efforts  to  relieve  the  famine,  which  had  pretty 
much  ceased  when  I  reached  India  last  November. 


218      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

A  great  many  deaths  have  occurred  during  the 
winter  as  the  indirect  consequence  of  the  famine, 
and  the  statements  made  by  Mr.  Juhan  Hawthorne 
in  the  Cosmopolitan,  which  were  so  severely  criti- 
cised, according  to  the  best  information  I  could  get 
in  India  did  not  exaggerate  the  dreadful  conse- 
quences of  the  famine. 

I  referred  to  the  British  government.  One  of  the 
marvels  of  history — one  of  the  most  striking  series 
of  events  in  any  generation  and  in  any  land — may 
be  summed  up  in  the  phrase,  ''  British  rule  in  India." 
How  it  came  to  pass  that  a  nation  having  its  chief 
seat  of  empire  on  a  little  island  on  the  west  coast 
of  Europe  should  have  been  able  to  subjugate  a  ter- 
ritor)^  as  large  as  the  United  States  east  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi River ;  to  bring  almost  all  the  native  rulers 
under  its  authority;  since  then  to  hold  disarmed 
a  population  of  two  hundred  and  eighty-seven  mil- 
lion people  and  give  them  the  best  government 
by  far  that  they  have  ever  had,  and  to  do  this  with 
only  eighty  thousand  British  soldiers,  and  with 
British  residents  (men,  women,  and  children  all 
put  together)  less  than  one  hundred  and  ninety 
thousand — surely  this  is  one  of  the  greatest  mar- 
vels recorded  in  authentic  history.  It  sounds  like 
the  wildest  romance  ;  but  it  is  the  solid  and  mag- 
nificent achievement  of  one  of  the  great  governing 
and  colonizing  nations  of  the  globe— bone  of  our 
bone  and  flesh  of  our  flesh.  And  I  want  to  add  this, 
in  this  time  when  I  will  not  say  we  greatly  need 
(for  any  other  than  a  sympathetic  reason)  the  friend- 


WELCOME  HOME. 


219 


ship  of  the  mother  country :  traveling  around  the 
globe  I  have  met  with  Englishmen— a  great  many 
of  them — of  all  ranks  of  society  ;  several  earls,  more 
lords,  officers  of  the  army  and  navy  and  of  the  mer- 
chant marine,  merchants  and  barristers,  missiona- 
ries and  their  critics,  clergymen  and  mechanics; 
have  talked  with  them  or  heard  them  talk  ;  and  I 
have  not  met  a  single  Englishman,  even  in  the  free- 
dom of  the  conversations  on  board  vessels  where 
we  were  together  many  days  (which  are  sure  to 
loosen  men's  tongues  if  anything  can),  who  said  in 
my  hearing,  at  any  time,  any  word  concerning  our 
country  that  was  not  a  word  of  respect  and  friend- 
ship. And  when,  on  board  English  ships,  called  to 
conduct  religious  services,  I  prayed  in  the  same 
breath,  more  than  once,  for  the  Queen  Empress  of 
India  and  for  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
the  rustle  of  satisfaction  and  gladness  amounted 
almost  to  applause ;  and  I  am  sure  you  will  all 
heartily  join  me  in  saying  "God  save  the  Queen" 
and  God  bless  old  England. 

Let  me  now  address  myself  to  the  condition  and 
progress  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  especially 
the  Methodist  type  of  it,  in  British  India.  I  wish 
first  to  make  a  general  statement — a  very  brief  one 
— and  then  to  impress  it  upon  your  minds  by  a  few 
vivid  pictures.  This  is  the  total  plan  of  what  I 
shall  now  say  ;  and  I  know  that  the  rhetoricians 
would  criticise  me  at  once,  some  of  them,  for  turn- 
ing the  subject  around,  and  beginning  where  I 
ought  to  end  ;  but  I  will  tell  you  frankly  my  reason  : 


220      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


I  am  so  sure  that  I  can  make  good  to  you  the  the- 
sis with  which  I  begin  this  part  of  my  remarks  that 
I  do  not  hesitate  to  tell  you  at  the  outset  my  delib- 
erate conclusion  on  the  subject  of  which  I  speak. 
The  collective  judgment  I  have  formed  is  about 
this:  that  Christianity,  and  the  Methodist  type  of  it, 
in  India,  have  brought  forth  in  this  generation  a 
volume  of  Christian  evidences  of  greater  value  to 
the  world  than  all  the  volumes  of  Christian  eviden- 
ces that  can  be  gathered  from  the  libraries  of  the 
theological  seminaries  of  both  hemispheres ;  that  in 
our  time,  in  the  lifetime  of  the  younger  men  here 
before  me  now,  the  Christian  religion  has  so  taken 
hold  in  the  vast  empire  of  India,  among  nearly 
three  hundred  million  people,  as  almost  to  enable 
the  careful  observer  to  see  the  footprints  of  the 
ever-living  Christ  all  over  that  land.  I  shall  hardly 
exaggerate  my  sense  of  the  truth  on  this  subject  if 
I  should  add  that  if  the  too  laggard  church  could 
but  come  a  little  nearer  to  her  divine-human  Leader, 
his  fresh  footprints  would  be  seen  everywhere  among 
the  nations. 

The  difference  between  the  books  and  the  sight 
of  such  evidences  of  Christianity  as  I  have  had  the 
privilege  to  witness  in  the  recent  months,  is  all  the 
difference  between  reading  a  treatise  on  the  expan- 
sive power  of  steam  and  walking  the  deck  of  a  mag- 
nificent six-thousand  ton  steamer  plunging  through 
the  billows  in  the  midst  of  the  ocean,  and  feeling 
the  constant  throb  of  its  hot  heart,  until  in  eleven 
days  it  has  crossed  the  great  Pacific.    I  find  not 


WELCOME  HOME. 


221 


how,  in  any  words  which  I  have  been  able  to  frame 
with  tongue  or  pen,  to  make  any  statement  strong 
enough  to  voice  my  own  burning  conviction  that  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  taking  India. 

Call  to  mind,  if  you  please,  Judson  in  Burma, 
toiling,  praying,  fearing,  hoping  for  many  a  weary 
year  before  he  had  a  single  convert,  and  Maclay 
similarly  waiting  in  China,  and  then  liear  the  facts 
which  I  am  about  to  state:  that  only  forty  years  ago, 
under  appointment  and  advice  of  those  two  great 
missionary  leaders  of  the  Church,  both  whose  names 
are  especially  sacred  in  this  City  of  Brotherly  Love — 
John  P.  Durbin  and  Matthew  Simpson — William 
Butler  went  out  to  plant  Methodism  in  Lndia  ;  and 
then  consider  well  what  I  now  tell  you  (and  I  wish 
these  figures  might  be  burned  into  your  memory): 
that  we  now  have  in  India  and  Malaysia  77,963 
communicants  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
of  whom  38,750  were  baptized  within  two  years ; 
1,259  schools  with  31,879  pupils;  2,485  Sunday 
schools,  with  83,229  scholars ;  209  Epworth  Leagues 
with  10,337  members;  226  foreign  missionaries, 
including  the  ministers,  their  wives,  and  the  mis- 
sionary teachers  of  the  Woman's  Foreign  Mission- 
ary Society ;  and  native  laborers  in  various  ranks  of 
employment,  making  a  staff  of  3,537  paid  workers  ; 
and  that  the  total  value  of  our  church,  school,  and 
other  properties  is  3,607,980  rupees. 

The  foundations  of  our  work  in  India  have  been 
broadly  and  solidly  laid  in  both  the  great  depart- 
ments of  missionary  labor,  the  educational  and  the 


# 


222      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


evangelistic.  Some  missionary  societies  devote 
themselves  almost  entirely  to  education,  and  the 
missionaries  are  little  more  than  schoolmasters ; 
some,  almost  entirely  to  evangelistic  work.  Our 
Church  does  both,  and  does  both  strongly  and  well. 

Some  ten  years  ago,  when  that  wonderful  little 
bunch  of  consecrated  and  sagacious  optimism 
called  James  M.  Thoburn  (just  then  elected  to  the 
missionary  episcopacy)  began  his  first  tour  among 
the  churches  in  America  before  he  went  out  to  India 
and  Malaysia,  he  startled  the  Church  by  saying  that 
he  hoped  to  live  to  see  the  day  when  there  would 
be  ten  thousand  converts  under  the  care  of  our 
Church  in  India  alone  in  a  single  year.  We  heard 
it  with  wonder — some  of  us  raising  the  question 
whether  he  was  the  wildest  of  fanatics  or  a  cour- 
ageous and  veritable  prophet  of  the  living  God.  I 
am  thankful  to  say  that  I  was  one  of  those  who 
at  the  time  chose  the  latter  horn  of  this  dilemma. 
The  events  of  the  last  ten  years  have  abundantly 
justified  that  belief,  and  instead  of  io,ooo  there  have 
been  in  a  single  year  12,000,  13,000,  one  year  18,000 
converts  brought  to  Christian  baptism  under  the 
labors  of  our  missionaries  in  India  and  Malaysia! 
And  these  numbers  might  be  vastly  augmented  if 
only — as  one  of  our  native  pastors  said  in  my  hear- 
ing— we  could  provide  "holders  up"  of  the  con- 
verts, that  is,  plain,  comparatively  illiterate,  but  gen- 
uinely converted  pastor-teachers,  who  should  train 
them  in  Christian  knowledge  and  guard  them  against 
the  temptations  sure  to  assail  them. 


WELCOME  HOME. 


223 


I  came  to  Allahabad,  a  "  sacred  "  city,  to  hold  the 
Northwest  India  Conference,  and  had  the  good 
fortune  to  get  there  just  in  time  to  see  a  great 
heathen  incla,  or  camp  meeting,  during  which  scores 
of  thousands  in  two  or  three  days,  and  certainly 
often  from  a  hundred  to  a  hundred  and  fifty  thou- 
sand in  a  month,  come  to  bathe  at  the  confluence  of 
the  Ganges  and  the  Jumna,  the  two  sacred  rivers, 
where,  as  they  think,  the  waters  arc  especially 
sacred.  There  is  a  strip  of  sand  and  dust  on  the 
bank  a  mile  and  a  quarter  in  width,  and  across  that 
there  is  a  sprinkled  path  three  hundred  feet 
wide.  It  has  to  be  sprinkled,  or  you  could  not 
breathe  at  all.  Crowds  of  people  are  going  to 
and  fro  all  the  time  ;  doubtless  fifteen  thousand 
the  day  I  was  there,  who  had  come  in  for  miles 
on  foot,  bringing  their  packages  of  rice  and  their 
blankets  on  their  heads,  to  bathe  daily  in  these 
waters. 

All  along  this  broad  path  were  beggars,  the  most 
blatant  and  persistent  and  outrageous  you  ever  saw. 
Those  in  Naples  cannot  begin  to  match  them.  They 
have  every  sort  of  malformation,  nine  tenths  of  them 
simulated,  as  a  policeman's  baton  will  quickly  show. 
They  want  anything  you  will  give  them  ;  a/zV,  the 
smallest  copper  coin,  in  use,  worth  only  one  sixth 
of  a  cent ;  cowries,  if  they  can  get  them — these 
little  shells,  of  which  one  hundred  and  sixty  are 
worth  but  one  cent,  but  which  have  been  money 
in  India  for  two  thousand  years,  and  are  so  now  ; 
a  little  handful  of  rice — anything  in  the  world. 

15 

If 


224      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

You  have  to  work  your  way  through  them  as  best 
you  can. 

There  were  also  the  devotees — the  "  holy  men  " 
— the  filthiest  men,  holy  or  unholy,  I  ever  saw ;  for 
besides  never  having  been  washed  or  having  their 
hair  combed — hanging  down  as  it  does  to  their 
shoulders  in  long,  snaky  mats — they  added  a  kind 
of  grayish-white  paint  on  their  faces  and  breasts 
that  made  them  hideous.  They  were  undergoing 
every  sort  of  self-torture.  Some  had  their  arms 
stretched  up  or  out  straight  until  they  were  as  stiff 
as  wood.  One  man  had  his  left  foot  above  his  right 
knee.  Under  his  breast  there  was  a  little  board 
fastened  by  a  cord  to  a  post  behind  him,  support- 
ing, perhaps,  one  third  of  his  weight.  He  had  been 
in  that  condition  eleven  years.  One  was  lying  on  a 
spike  bed  ;  one  was  sitting,  and  two  were  standing 
on  square  blocks  covered  with  spikes.  Dr.  Goucher, 
to  whom  everything  seems  by  a  strange  magnetism 
to  come,  wanted  one  of  these  spikes,  and  he  said  to 
the  man  as  he  was  working  away  at  one  of  them, 
"  Let  me  have  one  of  those  spikes.''  The  man  said, 
"  O,  no !  it  would  be  sacrilege ;  and  it  could  not 
be  taken  out,  it  has  grown  to  be  a  part  of  the  wood." 
At  last  the  doctor  said,  "  It  would  not  be  sacrilege 
for  me  to  have  it,  for  I  am  a  foreigner  from  another 
country,  and  I  think  it  will  come  out  easily  for  me  ; 
let  us  see ;  "  and  he  reached  down  to  the  spike  he 
had  been  working  at  and  lifted  it  slightly,  and  it 
came  right  out  before  the  man's  eyes,  to  his  great 
amazement.    Then  he  said,  "  I  have  a  friend  who 


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225 


wants  one  also."  The  man  declared  he  could  not 
possibly  agree  to  that,  and  yet  when  the  doctor  had 
the  two  out  before  his  eyes  the  man  took  with  a 
smile  the  little  piece  of  silver  that  was  given  him. 
So  now  I  have  one  of  the  spikes  on  which  that  de- 
votee had  lain  for  nine  years.  It  is  of  wrought 
iron,  about  three  inches  long  and  pointed  at  both 
ends,  and  was  driven  into  the  wood  about  an  inch. 
Other  devotees  were  lying  in  the  dust  covered  to 
their  nostrils,  and  every  expiration  sent  up  a  cloud 
of  dust  into  the  air.  Do  you  wonder  that  I  had 
the  feeling  of  being  submerged  and  suffocated  and 
almost  dead  ;  and  thought  of  our  missionaries  as  in 
the  same  condition,  and  yet  feeling  around  after 
pearls  ?  Do  you  think  I  can  put  into  words  the  im- 
pressions with  which  I  left  that  place  (after  some 
hours  of  wandering  about)  concerning  the  disgust- 
ing and  ruinous  heathenism  in  which  hundreds  of 
millions  of  my  fellow-creatures  are  held  in  India? 

Beside  the  great  pathway  was  a  little  booth  in 
which  four  or  five  native  preachers  (two  of  whom  un- 
derstood English)  were  preaching  the  Gospel ;  and 
I  stopped  and  found  one  who  could  interpret  for 
me.  Presently  there  came  up  an  old  man  ;  a  little 
crowd  gathered  ;  he  heard  with  them  the  singing, 
and  then  the  plain  preaching,  and  he  put  now  and 
then  a  question  which  the  missionary  paused 
to  answer.  When  the  talking  stopped  and  there 
came  a  little  lull,  I  had  a  half  hour's  chat  with  the 
old  man  through  an  interpreter.  He  had  one  of 
his  sacred  books  wrapped  up  carefully,  which  he  un- 


226     FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


wrapped  and  showed  mc,  and  read  me  something 
from  it ;  and  then  he  put  it  aside  awhile.  I  noticed 
that  while  he  was  talking  to  me  he  was  moving  his 
hand  in  a  little  bag — a  prayer  bag  hung  to  his  girdle 
by  a  hook,  and  with  a  place  for  the  thumb  on  one 
side  and  the  fingers  on  the  other.  I  asked  him 
what  he  was  doing.  "  Why,  I  am  counting  off  my 
beads — saying  my  prayers."  Said  I,  "  You  don't 
want  them ;  let  me  have  them."  He  smiled  and 
said,  "  They  don't  do  me  any  good."  So  presently 
he  handed  me  over  the  string  of  beads  and  I  gave 
him  half  a  rupee  of  silver  and  told  him  I  would  be 
glad  if  he  would  take  that  and  I  would  take  his 
treasure  ;  and  he  said  it  was  no  longer  of  any  use 
to  him.  I  pointed  him  to  Jesus ;  and  he  listened 
to  me  and  tried  to  upset  me  by  quotations  from 
his  book  ;  and  then  listened  and  listened  and  wanted 
to  know  more  of  my  Master;  and  when  my  time 
was  up  and  I  arose  to  leave,  he  gave  me  his  hand 
and  said,  "  I  will  be  yoicr  disciple."  "  O!  "  I  said, 
"  I  don't  want  you  ;  I  will  turn  you  over  to  my 
Lord,  Jesus  Christ ;  "  and  I  came  on  my  way. 

Look  now  at  a  very  different  picture,  which 
I  saw  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  a  little  village 
called  Bahlej.  Two  years  and  a  half  before  we 
had  there  only  fifteen  converts,  the  overflow  from 
Bombay.  That  shows  you  how  missions  propa- 
gate themselves  in  Northern  India — you  might 
as  well  assign  limits  to  the  rising  tide  of  the 
Atlantic  Ocean  as  to  assign  a  narrow  field  to  James 
M.  Thoburn  and  his  fellow-missionaries  and  the 


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227 


Methodist  Church  anywhere  on  the  face  of  the 
earth.  John  Wesley  told  an  everlasting  cruth  con- 
cerning it,  when  he  said,  "  The  world  is  my  parish." 
Well,  pardon  this  Pauline  digression  !  Fifteen  of 
these  Gujerati  converts  from  Bombay  got  up  into 
the  region  of  Baroda ;  of  course  our  missionaries 
followed  them ;  and  in  two  and  a  half  years  the 
fifteen  had  become  fourteen  hundred.  I  wish  we 
had  such  success  as  that  all  over  Philadelphia  and 
Pennsylvania. 

The  missionaries  extemporized  a  little  camp 
meeting  under  the  banyan  trees  for  Dr.  Goucher, 
Bishop  Thoburn  and  myself  to  meet  these  con- 
verts, whom  we  found  gathered  there  from  scores 
of  little  villages.  When  I  speak  of  villages,  I  do 
not  mean  what  you  call  a  village  here ;  I  mean  sim- 
ply a  little  collection  of  mud  huts — pei'haps  ten, 
twenty,  fifty,  one  hundred  of  them — in  which  human 
beings  live  and  from  which  they  go  forth  to  their 
daily  toil  in  the  fields.  In  villages  of  this  sort, 
within  twenty  miles,  these  fourteen  hundred  Chris- 
tians lived  ;  and  twelve  hundred  of  them  got  out 
to  see  the  American  strangers.  We  had  a  morn- 
ing and  afternoon  of  holy  song  and  delightful  ad- 
dresses and  the  utterance  of  Christian  experiences 
and  exhortation ;  and  then  in  the  afternoon,  as  we 
drew  near  the  close  of  the  services,  Dr.  Goucher 
and  I  had  the  honor  and  the  pleasure  to  baptize 
two  hundred  and  twenty-five  persons,  mostly  recent 
converts,  including  twenty-five  or  thirty  children  of 
those  converts,  many  of  them  four  or  five  years  old, 


228      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


running  around  the  grounds  clad  in  nothing  except 
the  brown  silk  in  which  they  were  born. 

Bishop  Thoburn  strictly  questioned  all  the  adults 
before  we  baptized  them.  They  were  arranged  in 
rows,  sitting  on  the  ground,  and  they  were  closely 
questioned  somewhat  thus :  "  Do  you  believe  in 
one  God?"  "Do  you  believe  in  Jesus  Christ?" 
"  Do  you  forsake  your  idols — have  you  put  away 
every  token  of  idolatry  ?  "  "  Will  you  forsake  "  this 
and  that  and  the  other?  "Will  you  give  up  espe- 
cially GJiali?  "  which  is  the  Hindustani  word  for  the 
obscene  abuse  of  another  person's  mother  and  grand- 
mother. The  Hindus  do  not  swear ;  their  swear- 
ing is  the  obscene  abuse  of  each  other's  ances- 
tors, and  especially  female  ancestors,  "  Will  you 
break  away  from  all  that  and  every  other  wicked 
thing  ? "  When  they  had  answered  many  such 
searching  questions,  I  said  to  one  of  the  mission- 
aries :  "  Do  these  poor  fellows  and  these  poor  women 
know  anything  about  the  Apostles'  Creed?"  He 
took  the  question  forward,  and  said,  "  Our  American 
bishop  wants  to  know  whether  you  know  anything 
about  the  Apostles'  Creed ; "  and  then  said  to  the 
interpreter,  "  Ask  them  and  let  them  try  it."  Then 
those  adults  repeated  the  Apostles'  Creed  from  be- 
ginning to  end  better  than  I  have  often  heard  it 
repeated  in  America,  unless  it  was  read  from  the 
book ;  and  they  could  have  done  the  same  with  the 
Twenty-third  Psalm,  the  Ten  Commandments,  and 
the  Lord's  Prayer.  I  account  it  as  one  of  the 
richest  privileges  of  my  life  that  I  was  permitted  to 


WELCOME  HOME. 


229 


sprinkle  the  water  of  holy  baptism  on  the  heads  of 
more  than  one  hundred  of  those  converts  from 
heathenism. 

"  Raw  heathen,"  I  have  heard  said  of  these  peo- 
ple in  Europe  and  in  America.  "  Raw  heathen." 
Yes,  such  they  were  ;  such  they  xvere.  How,  then, 
did  they  come  to  know  these  things?  Because  for 
four  or  six  months  humble  pastor-teachers  went 
through  these  villages  every  evening  when  the  labor- 
ers came  home  from  the  fields,  and  held  village 
prayer  services,  in  which  the  New  Testament  was 
read  and  plainly  expounded,  the  Apostles'  Creed 
was  taught,  and  the  Lord's  Prayer  was  taught,  and 
the  Ten  Commandments  were  taught ;  so  that  I  say, 
although  they  had  all  been  "  raw  heathen,"  when  we 
baptized  them  they  were  penitentChristian  believers. 

I  said  to  Dr.  Parker,  on  the  occasion  of  the 
similar  baptism  of  numerous  converts  elsewhere : 
"  Dr.  Parker,  tell  me  frankly ;  when  you  thus  win 
twenty  or  one  hundred  or  two  hundred  of  these 
raw  heathen  and  baptize  them,  how  many  are  stead- 
fast after  a  few  years?"  He  answered  :  "We  have 
done  that  again  and  again ;  and  where  they  are 
properly  cared  for  by  their  pastors,  after  a  year  or 
two  years  you  will  find  ninety-five  per  cent  of  them 
every  time  with  their  faces  toward  the  Cross,  lead- 
ing good  lives  and  doing  their  best  to  break  away 
from  their  habitual  sins."  "  Raw  heathen  ?  "  God 
send  us  more  of  them,  and  send  us  the  grace  to 
strengthen  and  uphold  them,  and  to  present  them 
at  last  before  him  with  exceeding  joy. 


230      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


Now  let  me  add,  if  only  our  beloved  Church 
were  able  (nay,  we  are  able),  were  so  awake  as  to 
be  willing  to  lay  such  contributions  on  the  altar  of 
the  Missionary  Society  that  we  might  add  twenty- 
five  per  cent  only  for  the  work  in  India  next  year, 
and  as  much  the  year  after,  I  tell  you  my  sober 
conviction  (which  is  as  clear  as  anything  which  I 
have  profoundly  studied  and  about  which  I  know 
the  facts) ;  we  might  double  the  number  of  our 
communicants  and  pupils,  and  our  influence  for 
good  in  India,  in  forty-eight  months  :  and  in  the 
early  years  of  the  century  to  come,  if  the  dear  Lord 
shall  only  give  us  reserved  energies  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  for  which  my  praying  heart  often  lays  claim 
in  humble  faith — in  the  opening  years  of  the  com- 
ing century  I  see  nothing  to  prevent  a  million  con- 
verts in  India  in  a  decade.  The  people  are  for- 
saking the  old  religions  and  are  disgusted  with 
them.  The  British  government  carries  with  it  all 
around  the  globe  the  Bible,  and  Protestant  Chris- 
tianity, and  the  form  of  sound  words  in  the  English 
liturgy,  and  is  a  savor  of  good  on  these  lines  ;  and 
I,  for  one,  am  glad  and  grateful  for  this  influence 
of  the  nation  from  which  we  sprang. 

I  am  glad  to  be  back  again  ;  I  am  glad  to  have 
rested  for  three  weeks  in  flowery  Japan  ;  I  am  glad 
to  say  that  on  the  last  Sunday  I  spent  in  Tokyo, 
after  riding  six  miles  through  a  fierce  rain  in  a  little 
narrow  jinrikisha,  with  two  barelegged  Japanese  to 
draw  me,  I  found  in  the  little  church  one  hundred 
and  thirty  native  Japanese,  and  through  an  inter- 


WELCOME  HOME. 


231 


prcter  preached  to  them  the  simplest  Gospel  I 
could  command.  Having  closed,  I  sat  down  ;  but, 
during  the  singing,  said  to  myself,  "  Why  had  you 
not  the  courage,  here  where  the  Japanese  are  too 
Frenchy  and  polite  to  put  religious  experience 
straight  to  men — why  had  you  not  the  courage  to 
ask  if  anybody  wanted  to  be  a  Christian  ?  "  And 
so,  before  they  rose  to  sing  the  doxology,  I  gave  a 
brief  exhortation  and  invited  any  who  wished  to 
come  to  Christ  to  rise  and  stand  ;  seven  arose — five 
young  men,  some  of  whom  are  students  in  the  Im- 
perial University,  and  two  middle-aged  women. 
Then  I  asked  them  forward,  and  they  came  and  sat 
down,  and  I  tried  to  tell  them  the  simple  way  of 
faith.  And  somehow  or  other,  I  felt  as  though  my 
license  to  preach  had  been  renewed ;  and  I  am 
ready  to  go  around  the  globe  again  if  only  I  may 
be  God's  voice  to  bring  seven  sinners — especially 
seven  heathen  sinners — to  the  mercy  seat, 

I  am  very  glad  to  be  back  here.  "  There's  no 
place  like  home ;  "  and,  next  after  that  dear  spot 
where  your  wife  and  children  are,  there  is  no  place 
like  a  great  Christian  community  in  which  you  el- 
bow up  against  like-minded,  hearty,  sympathetic 
fellow-workers  in  the  kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ. 

I  am  back  again.  How  long  I  shall  be  back  I 
cannot  tell.  You  speak  your  word  of  welcome  ;  I 
thank  you  ;  it  shows  that  you  cordially  appreciate 
my  return ;  though,  as  one  of  the  wide-ranging 
itinerants  of  the  Church,  I  cannot  command  very 
much  time  in  the  city  I  love  so  well.    Next  after 


232     FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


my  official  duties  I  am  here  again  to  lend  a  hand 
of  help  to  our  City  Missionary  and  Church  Exten- 
sion Society,  of  which  I  am  one  of  the  officers ;  I 
am  here  to  help  Methodists  in  Philadelphia  to  un- 
derstand a  little  better  how  much  they  need,  for 
their  own  sakes,  a  good,  strong,  Christian  school  for 
their  girls  ;  I  am  here  to  resume  my  place  among 
the  managers  of  our  general  Board  of  Church  Ex- 
tension ;  I  am  here  to  lend  at  least  a  heart  of  sym- 
pathy to  our  local  Methodist  philanthropic  institu- 
tions and  to  our  numerous  churches — I  cannot  be 
with  you  constantly — I  am  here  and  there  and 
everywhere  on  my  official  errands. 

I  hope  to  run  with  you  a  little  longer  in  this 
pilgrim  path,  and  trust  that  through  God's  infinite 
mercy  we  shall  meet  at  length  with  our  loved  and 
lamented  ones  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father,  and 
cast  our  starry  crowns  at  our  enthroned  Redeemer's 
feet  with  immortal  rapture. 


OUR  MOST  SUCCESSFUL  MISSION. 


233 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 
Out  Most  Successful  Mission. 

An  Address  before  the  General  Missionary  Committee,  at 
Providence,  R.  I.,  November  12,  1898.* 

I HAVE  been  looking  forward  to  this  meeting 
ever  since  I  came  from  India  with  a  deep 
sense  of  responsibility  and  a  painful  feeling  of  anx- 
iety and  apprehension  arising  from  two  facts  :  first, 
that  it  falls  to  my  lot  to  represent  the  most  suc- 
cessful mission  we  have  anywhere  or  have  ever 
had ;  and  second,  that  no  other  one  of  our  general 
superintendents  has  made  any  official  visitation  to 
that  field  for  eleven  years.  I  was  assigned  to  make 
the  first  of  the  visitations  ordered  by  the  last  Gen- 
eral Conference.  A  year  ago  I  was  in  the  field,  and 
a  year  ago  to-day  I  arrived  at  Naini  Tal,  where  I 
received  a  telegram  from  this  General  Committee 
and  answered  it,  and  many  hearts  were  thrilled  by 
your  sympathy  and  thoughtfulness. 

My  embarrassment  is  relieved  to  some  extent  by 
the  fact  that  I  had  as  my  constant  companion  Rev. 
Dr.  John  F.  Goucher,  whose  fidelity  and  intelli- 
gence in  the  administration  of  the  great  trusts 
committed  to  him  is  well  known  to  you  all,  and 
who  will  assist  me  in  this  representation.  And  I 
had  also  the  invaluable  help  of  the  constant  pres- 

*  Spoken  extemporaneously  and  stenographically  reported. 


234      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


ence — except  in  the  case  of  one  Conference — of 
Bishop  Thoburn. 

This  joint  administration  was  arranged  for,  as  you 
know,  by  the  General  Conference,  which  left  all 
the  particulars  concerning  the  method  to  be  deter- 
mined by  the  two  bishops  in  charge,  and  provided 
that  "  in  case  of  a  difference  of  judgment,  the  exist- 
ing status  shall  continue,  unless  overruled  by  the 
general  superintendents,  who  shall  have  power  to 
decide  finally."  I  am  delighted  to  say,  after  having 
gone  through  this  whole  administration,  that  daily 
conversations  and  prayer  solved  all  the  difficulties, 
and  at  the  close  of  the  entire  visitation,  while 
neither  of  us,  I  am  sure,  sacrificed  any  clear  con- 
victions, we  at  last  came  to  unity  of  judgment  at 
every  point,  and  reported  nothing  to  the  Board  of 
Bishops  to  be  settled  by  them. 

On  our  voyage  from  Brindisi  to  Bombay  we  met 
Lord  Kinnaird,  a  Scotchman — a  Presbyterian  in 
Scotland  and  a  Churchman  in  London  (as  he  said 
the  queen  was,  and  as  he  had  a  right  to  be),  a 
deeply  religious  man,  who  had  been  greatly  blessed 
under  the  labors  of  Mr.  Moody  and  Professor 
Drummond — who  was  going  out  with  his  wife  to 
inspect  the  work  of  zenana  missions.  We  had  on 
board  thirty-nine  missionaries,  representing  thir- 
teen different  societies.  We  proposed  to  Lord 
Kinnaird  that  we  should  have  some  missionary 
conferences,  at  which  he  was  asked  to  preside.  We 
had  on  alternate  days  four  of  these  conferences,  at 
which  almost  every  subject  of  practical  interest 


OUR  MOST  SUCCESSFUL  MISSION.  235 


concerning  the  work  of  missions  in  India  was 
discussed.  Questions  came  from  Lord  Kinnaird 
which  set  us  to  thinking  on  the  character  of  our 
converts,  and  I  think  his  questionings  and  doubts 
were  resolved  by  the  reports  we  afterward  sent  him, 
for  recently  he  has  given  Bishop  Thoburn  one  hun- 
dred pounds  for  his  work. 

When  we  began  our  visitations  we  found  a 
condition  of  things  which  it  is  not  possible  to  fully 
describe.  I  wish  you  could  be  placed  on  some 
magic  carpet  which  should  transport  you  all  to 
that  heathenism-stricken  continent.  What  I  saw 
and  heard  went  to  my  bones  and  marrow  and  heart, 
and  became  an  awful  incubus  and  nightmare. 
When  I  have  awakened  in  the  darkness  of  the 
night,  I  have  often  had  a  sharp  revival  of  feelings 
which  Bishop  Thoburn  could  not  fully  represent  to 
you,  because  for  forty  years  he  has  been  in  the 
midst  of  heathenism,  and  he  had  to  become  cal- 
loused on  the  surface  or  die. 

India  is  a  dreadfully  poverty-stricken  country. 
Women  are  employed  in  the  hardest  of  labor  at 
four  cents  a  day,  and  multitudes  of  men  also.  Ex- 
cellent carpenters  and  masons  and  painters  can  be 
had  in  Madras  and  Bombay  for  from  ten  to  fourteen 
cents  a  day.    That  shows  the  poverty. 

It  is  important  that  you  get  a  little  sense  of  what 
you  read  about  and  think  about  concerning  hea- 
thenism, not  as  a  distant  and  striking  picture,  but 
as  an  omnipresent  and  awful  reality ;  and  this 
among  three  hundred  millions  of  people  for  whom 


236      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR 


Jesus  Christ  died  !  I  want  you  to  see  that  thing. 
I  refer  first  to  the  condition  of  women  in  India. 
Dr.  R.  S.  Storrs  utters  a  brilliant  and  very  impres- 
sive simile :  "It  is  a  fact,  significant  for  the  past, 
prophetic  for  the  future,  that  even  as  Dante  meas- 
ured his  successive  ascents  in  paradise,  not  by  im- 
mediate consciousness  of  movement,  but  by  seeing 
an  ever  lovelier  beauty  in  the  face  of  Beatrice,  so 
the  race  now  counts  the  gradual  steps  of  its  spir- 
itual progress  out  of  the  ancient  heavy  glooms 
toward  the  glory  of  the  Christian  millennium,  not 
by  mechanisms,  not  by  cities,  but  by  the  ever  new 
grace  and  force  exhibited  by  woman,  who  was 
for  ages  either  the  decorated  toy  of  man  or  his  de- 
spised and  abject  drudge." 

Think  of  a  country  in  which  women  are  the 
great  burden-bearers,  where  millions  of  them  who 
can  get  any  work  get  only  four  cents  a  day,  and 
where  there  are  millions  who  cannot  get  any  work 
at  all ;  and  where  a  woman  has  no  thought  of  any 
such  thing  as  being  the  owner  of  her  own  body,  of 
her  own  mind,  of  her  own  heart!  Fathers  prom- 
ise their  daughters  in  marriage  to  men  who  have 
never  seen  them,  and  the  bride  and  groom  gener- 
ally meet  but  once  before  their  marriage  for  a  short 
conversation  which  runs  like  this:  "  Can  you  cook? 
Will  you  stay  at  home  and  prepare  my  food?"  and 
"  What  wages  do  you  get,  and  can  you  support  me, 
and  will  you  if  I  marry  you  ?  "  and  that  is  about  all. 
And  this  occurs,  or  the  contract  for  it,  when  the 
girls  are  less  than  twelve  years  of  age,  generally 


OUR  MOST  SUCCESSFUL  MISSION.  237 


from  seven  to  ten.  If  a  man's  daughter  becomes 
eleven  or  twelve  and  is  not  engaged  to  be  married 
he  finds  a  marriage  broker  and  says,  "  Find  a  young 
man  for  my  daughter ; "  and  he  gives  her  in  mar- 
riage, and  she  never  sees  the  man  to  whom  she  is 
body  and  soul  given  up  until  they  meet  at  the  mar- 
riage altar.  Then,  if  the  man  dies,  she  becomes  a 
widow,  perhaps  at  eleven  or  twelve  or  thirteen 
years  of  age,  and  is  a  bond  slave  of  her  father-in- 
law  and  mother-in-law,  and  is  despised,  and  has  no 
hope  of  happiness  in  this  life. 

Now  another  picture  drawn  in  deepest  shadow, 
showing  how  the  general  mind  of  this  whole  mass 
of  humanity  has  been  for  thousands  of  years  de- 
pressed until  the  intellect,  sensibilities,  moral  na- 
ture, and  spiritual  aspirations  are  covered  up  and 
ground  down  and  loaded  with  rubbish  and  filth. 

Come  with  me  to  the  sacred  city  of  Benares. 
It  stands  on  a  sweep  of  the  Ganges  that  extends  for 
two  miles  and  a  quarter.  Here  is  a  high  bluff  slop- 
ing backward  from  the  water,  and  all  along  these 
sacred  waters  of  the  Ganges  facilities  are  provided 
for  bathing  for  religious  purposes.  There  are  stone 
steps  going  down  into  the  water,  and  platforms 
reaching  out  twenty  feet  or  more  into  the  stream 
in  order  that  the  largest  number  possible  of  men 
and  women  may  bathe  for  religious  purposes.  It 
is  done  promiscuously  but  decently.  They  man- 
age to  strip  off  what  little  clothing  they  have  while 
in  the  water,  and  then  to  robe  themselves  with  a 
fresh  garment  before  coming  out. 


238      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


As  I  went  up  and  down  that  river  front  on  the 
second  story  of  a  kind  of  houseboat,  for  two  or 
three  hours  on  each  of  two  mornings  between  nine 
and  twelve  o'clock,  and  saw  tens  of  thousands  of 
people  bathe  for  religious  purposes  in  the  "  holy- 
Ganges,"  my  great  and  profound  sense  of  the 
evils  of  heathenism  became  a  measureless  pain. 
Most  of  the  bathers  seemed  utterly  indifferent. 
They  looked  about  and  went  through  the  perform- 
ance as  mechanically  as  though  turning  the  crank 
of  a  hand  organ.  There  were  among  them  lepers, 
easily  known  by  their  white  spots. 

The  Ganges  is  the  filthiest  stream  I  ever  saw. 
The  Missouri  after  a  freshet  cannot  match  it.  The 
dead  bodies  of  animals  float  down,  lodge  on  the 
bars,  and  are  torn  to  pieces  by  the  vultures.  The 
calcined  bones  of  human  beings,  burned  in  the 
ghais,  float  down  the  stream  on  little  bamboo  rafts, 
and  there  is  such  a  burning  ghat  in  full  operation 
on  the  shore  in  the  midst  of  the  bathing  places.  I 
saw  several  bodies  on  separate  piles  wrapped  in 
flames  ;  and  one  man  on  a  stretcher,  his  breast  still 
heaving  with  his  expiring  gasps.  When  I  returned 
an  hour  later  his  body  was  on  a  pile  half  consumed. 
Close  by  stand  several  monuments  on  the  spots 
where  living  widows  were  burned  before  suttee  was 
abolished  by  the  strong  and  beneficent  hand  of 
British  law. 

The  sewage  of  the  great  towns  and  cities,  and 
of  the  whole  country,  which  is  full  of  domestic  ani- 
mals and  wild  beasts  and  human  beings,  pours  into 


OUR  MOST  SUCCESSFUL  MISSION.  239 


the  vile  stream.  And  that  is  the  Ganges  !  Yet  the 
natives  think  it  sacred  and  perfectly  clean  !  They 
bring  their  bowls  of  brass  consecrated  by  the 
priests  and  dip  up  the  water  and  drink  it  for  inter- 
nal ablution.  They  carry  home  water  to  their 
friends,  a  pint  or  so  of  this  holy  water,  as  a  sacred 
treasure.  No  statements  of  physiologists  as  to  the 
numberless  myriads  of  microbes  in  every  gill 
affect  them  in  the  least.  It  is  the  holy  Ganges  ;  it 
is  sacred !  As  I  came  to  the  shore  and  went  into 
the  shrines,  of  which  there  are  a  great  many  thou- 
sands, with  little  gods  in  them,  and  saw  the  people 
come  and  lay  down  their  yellow  flowers  or  other 
offerings,  and  into  the  temples,  of  which  there  are 
hundreds,  I  found  that  the  instruments  of  devotion 
and  the  symbols  in  the  presence  of  these  gods 
were  in  every  case  so  obscene  that  no  photograph  of 
them  could  lie  on  your  parlor  table,  and  no  words 
dare  mention  them. 

Lest  this  statement  should  seem  to  you  morbid, 
I  fortify  it  by  words  of  Bishop  Thomson,  written 
thirty  years  ago : 

"  Indian  idolatry  has  touched  bottom.  As  I 
stood  in  the  holy  city  Benares,  every  sense  dis- 
gusted, and  every  feeling  merged  in  indignation, 
contemplating  the  stupidity,  the  odiousness,  the 
obscenity,  the  discord,  the  beastliness  of  that  cen- 
ter of  pagan  worship,  I  thought,  surely  it  can  get 
no  lower  without  opening  the  mouth  of  hell.  I 
exclaimed,  within  myself, '  Almighty  God,  to  what 
depths  of  darkness  and  depravity  are  thy  rational 

16 


240      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

creatures  capable  of  descending,  when  they  turn 
away  from  the  revelation  of  love  and  mercy  ! '  As  I 
looked  upon  a  fakir  seated  by  the  Ganges,  naked, 
haggard,  worn  to  a  skeleton,  I  thought  I  knew  what 
it  is  to  be  damned." 

I  would  not  have  drawn  these  dark  pictures  if 
there  were  not  light  to  be  had  on  them.  There  is  not 
only  ruin  but  remedy.  What  is  it?  Do  you  recall 
the  three  forms  of  the  great  commission  of  the 
blessed  Saviour?  One  is,  "As  ye  go,  heal  the  sick 
and  tell  them  the  kingdom  of  God  is  come  unto 
you.''  Another  is,  "  Go  ye,  teach  all  nations." 
And  the  third,  "  Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and 
preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature."  Philanthro- 
py, education,  evangelism  ;  these  are  the  Lord's 
methods  for  the  world's  uplift.  We  have  them  all 
in  India.  The  missionaries  were  wise  enough  from 
the  start  to  plant  at  the  earliest  day  these  three 
plants.    I  cannot  tell  you  the  results  with  fullness. 

Philanthropy — it  is  not  simply  medical  work,  but 
all  philanthropy ;  for  the  Lord  not  only  healed  the 
sick,  he  fed  the  hungry  and  cleansed  the  lepers  and 
raised  the  dead.  He  "  went  about  doing  good." 
And  that  is  what  we  attempt  to  do  in  Lidia  and  in 
every  other  well-ordered  mission  everywhere.  In  a 
marvelous  way  God  has  thrust  great  opportunities 
upon  us  in  the  late  years  by  the  hard  fate  of  famine. 
I  was  there  just  as  the  famine  was  dying  out. 

On  my  way  out  I  saw  at  Suez  the  ship  City  of 
Everett,  which  went  from  San  Francisco,  carrying 
out  three  or  four  thousand  tons  of  American  wheat 


OUR  MOST  SUCCESSFUL  MISSION. 


241 


and  corn  and  beans  for  the  relief  of  the  famine. 
When  it  got  to  Calcutta  Bishop  Thoburn's  great 
reputation  throughout  India — and  the  powers  of 
India  honor  him  as  a  veritable  prophet  of  the  living 
God  in  this  generation — led  to  the  handing  over  of 
hundreds  of  tons  to  our  missionaries,  and  they  dis- 
tributed them  to  the  people.  The  large  grains  of 
Indian  corn  were  unlike  anything  the  people  had 
seen ;  and  up  and  down  the  great  central  provinces 
of  India,  as  they  saw  these  big  kernels  and  found 
out  where  they  had  come  from  and  heard  the  story 
of  this  ship,  they  said,  "  It  must  be  that  Jesus  is 
the  great  Giver."  So  they  connected  the  food 
which  saved  their  lives  with  America  and  with  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

As  a  result  of  the  famine,  we  had  thrust  upon  our 
hands  by  parents,  many  of  whom  could  not  feed  their 
children  another  week  and  many  of  whom  would 
not  feed  them,  more  than  two  thousand  of  these 
orphans  and  other  famine  waifs.  And  that  noble 
man  of  God,  Rockwell  Clancy  (Julian  Hawthorne, 
in  the  Cosmopolitan,  calls  him  and  his  wife  two  rep- 
resentative, humble,  self-denying  missionaries  of 
Jesus  Christ),  when  the  orphans  began  to  throng  at 
his  door,  knelt  at  midnight  with  his  wife  and  prayed 
over  it,  and  took  a  vow  that  they  would  not  turn 
away  a  single  famishing  child  :  there  were  more 
than  two  thousand  of  them,  and  they  had  to  send 
many  of  them  to  the  mission  stations  all  about 
India.  So  weak  were  a  large  number  of  them  that 
one  third  died  after  coming  to  the  missionaries  ;  but 


242      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

of  the  others  hundreds  upon  hundreds  are  now 
happy  little  saints  of  the  living  God. 

Education,  that  is  the  second  thing.  "Teach  all 
nations."  On  the  way  out,  in  our  discussions  on 
shipboard,  one  of  the  missionaries  of  another  Church, 
which  has  a  different  idea  of  missionary  work,  told 
us  that  in  a  large  college,  with  six  hundred  students 
of  high  grade,  of  which  he  and  seven  more  bachelor 
priests  are  at  the  head,  he  is  not  aware  that  in  fif- 
teen years  there  has  been  a  single  convert.  We  do 
not  believe,  in  our  Church,  that  when  the  Lord 
Jesus  called  men  into  the  ministry  he  meant  that 
they  should  be  simply  and  only  schoolmasters.  So 
our  teaching  is  of  another  sort.  In  India  our  Church 
has  worked  on  very  different  lines. 

Let  me  give  you  a  romance  more  marvelous  than 
any  in  the  books,  and  yet  every  word  of  which  is 
veracious  history.  About  twenty-five  years  ago 
there  was  a  young  Methodist  preacher  in  our 
Church,  Jolm  F.  Goucher,  who  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  pray  daily  for  our  missions.  After  a  time 
he  began  to  take  up  one  each  day  of  the  week,  and 
for  some  years  made  special  prayer  every  Thursday 
for  our  missions  in  India.  He  became  convinced 
that  the  great  need  of  our  work  there  was  vernacular 
schools  in  the  humblest  villages,  where  the  low-caste 
boys  and  girls  should  be  taught,  with  Christian 
songs  and  prayers,  the  elements  of  education — ■ 
"  boys  and  girls  !  " — believing  that  God's  unit  of  the 
Christian  state  is  the  Christian  family.  He  set  apart 
some  money  for  that  purpose,  and  had  to  beg  his 


OUR  MOST  SUCCESSFUL  MISSION.  243 


way  at  first  past  two  Church  Boards  to  get  the  money 
accepted  ;  but  he  finally  succeeded  in  planting  over 
one  hundred  schools,  and  has  sustained  them  for 
fifteen  years  at  a  cost  of  over  a  hundred  thousand 
dollars;  and  here  is  the  result!  The  presiding  el- 
ders' reports  show  that  the  planting  of  these  schools, 
flowering  out  into  a  first-class  high  school  in  one  of 
the  great  cities,  has  resulted  under  the  labors  of  pre- 
siding elders,  pastors,  teachers,  local  preachers,  and 
workers  of  various  degrees — who  have  been  students 
in  those  schools — in  more  than  twenty-seven  thou- 
sand conversions  in  India !  The  other  educational 
work  under  the  care  of  the  Church  is  well  graded 
and  successful.  From  the  lowest  school  up  to  the 
theological  seminary  it  is  permeated  at  every  step 
with  the  spirit  of  religion.  We  have  no  six  hundred 
students  for  fifteen  years  of  whom  none  are  con- 
verted.   We  often  get  nearly  the  whole  school. 

"  Go  ye,  preach  ;  "  and  not  through  these  other 
ways  alone:  the  direct  results  of  our  evangelistic 
labor  amazed  me  and  will  probably  amaze  you.  I 
have  a  task  I  cannot  accomplish.  Spoken  words 
cannot  give  you  what  my  eyes  saw  and  my  ears 
heard.* 

We  went  to  a  camp  meeting  at  Hathras,  near  the 
foothills  of  the  Himalayas,  where  for  four  days  two 
District  Conferences  were  held.  There  we  met  a 
native  presiding  elder,  Hasan  Raza  Khan,  originally 
a  high-caste   Mohammedan,  with  powers  which 


*The  facts  concerning  meetings  at  Nairn  Tal  were  here  introduced.  See 
page  29. 


244      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

would  make  him  a  most  acceptable  and  delightful 
preacher  to  any  congregation  in  America.  They 
had  a  Woman's  Conference  and  all  sorts  of  meet- 
ings for  two  days. 

Being  an  old-time  class  leader  I  tried  to  find  out 
whether  these  heathen  converts  were  converted, 
and  was  very  busy  with  that  question.  So  I  listened 
with  an  interpreter  at  my  elbow,  and  I  am  bound  to 
say  that  in  no  four  days  of  my  life  at  any  camp 
meeting  in  America  have  I  ever  heard  so  many  ser- 
mons and  addresses  and  prayers  and  experiences 
relating  to  the  personality  of  the  Holy  Ghost  as  a 
witnessing  spirit  to  present  salvation  and  as  to  the 
enduement  of  power  for  Christian  service  as  I  heard 
among  those  "raw  heathen,"  as  Lord  Kinnairdcalled 
them,  in  India.  Blessed  be  God  for  such  heathen  ! 
Then  I  came  down  farther ;  but  I  cannot  give  you 
half  of  what  is  vividly  before  me  ;  I  must  give  you 
some  summary  of  the  facts. 

Now  let  me  make  the  most  astonishing  state- 
ment of  progress  in  God's  work  on  earth  of  which  I 
have  any  personal  knowledge.  You  can  find  it  in 
the  Minutes  of  the  Central  India  Conference.  Let 
us  take  the  statistics  of  the  year  1887,  the  year  of 
the  last  official  visitation  from  this  country  before 
my  tour,  made  by  Bishop  Ninde,  and  compare 
them  with  those  of  the  year  I  was  there,  1898.  In 
1887  we  had  3,305  probationers;  eleven  years  later, 
46,097.  In  1887  we  had  4,018  full  members;  now 
we  have  31,866.  The  total  number  of  our  commu- 
nicants then  was  7,323  ;  now  we  have  77,C)6'^.  That 


OUR  MOST  SUCCESSFUL  MISSION.  245 


is  an  increase  of  tenfold  in  eleven  years.  Then  we 
had  96  churches  ;  now  we  have  233.  In  1887  we 
had  313  Sunday  schools  ;  now  we  have  2,485.  Then 
we  had  14,102  Sunday  school  scholars,  and  now  we 
have  83,229.  And  all  this  in  eleven  years!  I  so- 
berly ask  you  if  you  can  think  of  any  figures  begin- 
ning with  thousands,  where  there  has  been  such  a 
percentage  of  increase  in  any  mission  of  which  we 
have  any  knowledge,  or  in  any  part  of  any  country 
where  Methodism  has  ever  been  planted.  The  in- 
crease from  7  to  70  is  far  easier  than  that  from 
7,000  to  70,000.  After  some  thirty  years  of  work 
we  had  the  great  record  which  made  Dr.  Curry  de- 
clare India  to  be  our  greatest  mission  in  his  life- 
time. Now  those  thousands  have  been  multiplied 
six,  eight,  ten,  and  even  fourteen  fold.  These  are 
the  amazing  figures  gathered  in  that  marvelous 
field. 

What  are  the  needs  of  this  Mission?  The  needs! 
I  struck  this  morning,  rising  from  my  bed,  on  what 
seems  to  me  a  remarkable  parallel.  Great  Britain 
is  controlling  India  with  less  than  eighty  thousand 
soldiers.  She  keeps  India  disarmed  and  in  subjec- 
tion and  gives  it  the  best  government  it  has  ever 
had  by  far.  If  the  son  of  a  lord  is  a  judge  in  a  court 
in  any  city  of  India  and  does  not  do  fairly  well  it  is 
quickly  found  out,  and  somebody  else  has  the  place. 
England  means  to  administer  justice.  And  this 
wonderful  military  and  naval  governing  power  holds 
these  three  hundred  millions  with  less  than  eighty 
thousand  soldiers  from  Great  Britain.    They  raise 


246      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

up  an  army  of  Sepoys  or  native  soldiers  who  become 
faithful  British  soldiers.  We  now  have  in  India 
just  about  as  many  soldiers  in  the  army  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  as  Great  Britain  has  soldiers  with  rifles 
on  their  shoulders.  And  among  these  we  have  three 
thousand  five  hundred  and  thirty-seven  paid  work- 
ers.   These  are  the  officers  of  our  army. 

I  read  a  well-considered  editorial  in  one  of  the 
papers  of  India  stating  that  when  English  officers, 
young  men,  the  pride  of  noble  homes,  were  fighting 
up  in  the  mountain  defiles  leading  to  Afghanistan, 
these  young  officers  were  followed  by  those  Sepoys 
with  absolute  devotion,  for  these  reasons:  the  Se- 
poys know  that  the  young  English  officers  can  be 
depended  upon  for  two  things — never  to  tell  a  lie, 
and  to  die  at  their  posts.  It  may  be  extravagant 
praise,  but  Englishmen  told  me  it  was  true ;  they 
will  tell  the  truth,  the  government  gets  the  facts ; 
and  every  man  will  die  at  his  post  if  need  be. 
That  makes  possible  the  magnificent  occupation  of 
that  vast  stronghold  of  heathenism  by  Anglo-Saxon 
grit  and  intelligence  and  pluck.  Rudyard  Kipling 
had  it  right;  "Sergeant  What's-His-Name "  de- 
serves the  credit  of  the  conquest  in  Egypt.  Soldiers 
are  made  out  of  the  mud  by  instruction  and  drill 
and  contact  with  Anglo-Saxons. 

We  want  American  officers  in  India,  enough  to  be 
the  brains  and  the  inspiring  force  and  the  example  to 
the  thirty-three  hundred  native  officers  ;  and  among 
the  thirty-three  hundred  such  increase  little  by  little 
in  numbers  and  pluck  and  firmness  and  devotion  to 


OUR  MOST  SUCCESSFUL  MISSION.  247 


Jesus  Christ  as  will  make  them  fit  teachers  of  the  sev- 
enty-seven thousand,  and  then  of  the  seven  hundred 
and  seventy-seven  thousand  which  twenty  years  of 
fair  appreciation  by  our  beloved  Church  of  her  stu- 
pendous opportunity  in  India  would  bring  us.  Sup- 
ply these  needs,  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  during 
the  lives  of  my  grandchildren  we  may  have  more 
Methodists  in  India  than  we  now  have  in  the  United 
States. 

What  do  we  need  ?  I  have  given  you  a  little 
hint ;  enough  American  brain  and  consecration  and 
religious  life  to  be  the  inspiration  of  this  movement. 
We  haven't  it  now.  And  now  let  me  alarm  you,  as 
lam  myself  alarmed,  by  the  statement  that  thirteen 
of  our  best  missionary  workers  in  northern  India 
have  been  there  more  than  thirty-five  years  each. 
I  have  a  little  picture  of  four  of  these  workers 
who  together  have  rendered  one  hundred  and  forty- 
three  years  of  service  there  !  Thirteen  are  left. 
God  wants  them,  and  heaven  waits  for  them,  and 
they  will  soon  be  there.  There  is  a  gap  that  ought 
to  be  filled  in  the  near  to-morrow.  The  Church  can- 
not afford  to  leave  it  vacant.  We  need  simply 
enough  American  missionaries  to  be  the  leaders  of 
the  native  host  and  their  guides  and  inspirers ;  and 
then  enough  of  the  native  host,  the  workers,  to  be 
the  inspiration  and  the  guide  of  the  hosts  who  are 
almost  ready  to  come  now  to  baptism.  The  num- 
bers preparing  to  come,  with  fair  intelligence,  to 
Christian  baptism,  abjuring  their  idols  and  accept- 
ing Jesus  Christ,  are  now  scores  of  thousands. 


248      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


One  presiding  elder,  a  native  Mohammedan, 
said,  "  I  can  get  on  my  district  in  eighteen  months 
fifty  thousand  to  come  to  baptism  if  you  can  fur- 
nish us  with  '  holders-up,'  "  which  means  such  plain, 
simple,  native  Christians  as  can  be  secured  for  thirty 
dollars  a  year  each,  or  local  preachers  for  fifty  dol- 
lars, to  teach  them.  They  hate  their  idols.  They 
cut  off  the  lock  of  hair  which  they  have  cherished 
as  a  sign  of  idolatry.  They  come  to  baptism  and 
learn  the  Creed  and  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  the  Ten 
Commandments,  and  we  hold  village  prayers  with 
them  every  night.  It  is  not  done  indiscriminately. 
We  have  kept  off  more  than  ten  thousand  because 
we  did  not  dare  to  baptize  them  without  leaving 
some  native  teacher  who  shall  teach  them  every 
week  and  tell  them  of  Christian  morals  and  sustain 
them  in  a  hatred  of  idolatry;  because  if  a  village  or 
half  a  village  lapses  from  us  it  is  worse  than  if  we 
had  not  been  there  at  all. 

As  to  the  needs,  you  see  them ;  I  need  not  talk 
about  that.  What  is  our  asking?  I  need  not  name 
figures,  Dr.  Goucher  will  do  that.  But  in  short  the 
asking  is  this,  that  you  do  not  compel  the  mission- 
aries in  your  grandest  mission  to  stand  like  a  cor- 
don of  police,  with  their  faces  and  their  batons  to- 
ward a  crowd  ready  to  come  to  Jesus,  holding  them 
back,  and  saying,  "  We  don't  want  you  !  "  That  is 
what  we  ask.  That  simply  shows  you  what  we  are 
doing.  Our  preachers  line  up  and  say  in  Confer- 
ence after  Conference,  "  We  cannot  baptize  those 
who  are  ready  to  come." 


OUR  MOST  SUCCESSFUL  MISSION.  249 


The  figure  is  a  fair  one.  Your  missionaries, 
Bishop  Thoburn  among  the  rest,  are  obliged  to  do 
that  very  thing.  Do  you  remember  when  he  was 
elected  missionary  bishop  how  he  came  to  the  Con- 
ferences and  churches  and  began  to  plead  for  India, 
and  to  say,  "  My  dear  friends,  I  soberly  hope  my- 
self to  live  to  see  the  time  when  there  will  be  ten 
thousand  heathen  brought  to  baptism  in  North 
India  in  a  single  year?"  Do  you  remember  how 
the  most  of  us  said,  "  It  is  the  wild  raving  of  a  fa- 
natic?" And  but  few  dared  to  say,  "  Mayhap  it  is 
the  veritable  word  of  a  prophet  of  the  living  God." 
I  am  happy  to  say  that  I  was  among  that  number 
all  along.  Now  we  have  had  two  years  in  the 
course  of  which  we  did  baptize  thirty-eight  thousand 
two  hundred  and  nineteen  heathen.  And  I  tell 
you,  beloved,  if  this  church  had  been  ready  to  add 
fifteen  per  cent  a  year  for  the  last  two  years  to 
enlarge  the  American  force  a  little,  and  more 
largely  the  native  forces,  we  would  be  having  now 
fifty  thousand  baptisms  every  year  there.  Do  you 
want  your  missionaries  simply  to  proclaim  the 
Gospel,  and  then  to  stand  like  police  to  say,  "  Stand 
back,  ye  dusky  millions,  stand  back !"  But  you 
will  think  I  am  an  advocate  and  not  a  member  of 
the  jury.  We  are  to  vote  on  these  appropriations 
and  on  those  for  the  whole  world.  Ye  angels  of 
the  living  God,  fly  through  the  land  and  tell  the 
Church  what  we  imperatively  need.  I  must  not 
forget  that  I  am  a  juryman  and  must  presently 
join  you  in  a  verdict  on  India's  needs.    But  I  must 


250      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

also  be  an  advocate,  for  I  myself  have  "  an  Advo- 
cate with  the  Father,  even  Jesus  Christ  the  right- 
eous;" and  as  he  stands  between  God  and  me,  so 
in  his  name  I  stand  to-day  between  him  and  three 
hundred  millions  of  those  for  whom  he  died,  and 
say  to  you,  "  Gentlemen  of  the  jury,  if  you  had 
seen  what  I  have  seen  you  would  all  be  advocates." 


A  BUGLE  CALL. 


251 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 
A  Bogle  Call. 


HE  General  Missionary  Committee  requested 


1  me  to  prepare  "  an  Appeal  for  Foreign  Mis- 
sions." Such  a  presentation  of  the  interests  of  the 
kingdom  of  our  conquering  Christ  as  that  word 
suggests  should  not  be  necessary  for  those  who  will 
read  this  paper.  It  would  seem  that  the  cause 
should  need  no  longer  to  be  elaborately  reasoned, 
but  only  briefly  stated.  Having  recently  returned 
from  several  months'  travel  through  the  heart  of 
the  heathen  world  I  feel  like  springing  to  the  frown- 
ing but  crumbling  ramparts  of  Hinduism  and  sum- 
moning the  slumbering  hosts  of  an  army,  already 
victorious  in  many  places,  to  a  charge  all  along  the 
line. 

When,  after  much  meditation,  I  sat  down  at  my 
desk  to  begin  this  article,  I  reached  for  the  Re- 
vised Version  of  the  Bible  and  opened  it;  the  first 
words  my  eyes  rested  upon  were  the  parable  of  the 
mustard  seed,  which  is  "  less  than  all  the  seeds 
that  are  upon  the  earth,  yet  when  it  is  sown  it 
groweth  up  and  becometh  greater  than  all  the 
herbs,  and  putteth  out  great  branches."  These 
words  suggest  the  fitness  of  the  good  seed  of  the 
word  to  grow  amazingly  anywhere.  Only  sow  it ; 
it  will  make  way  for  itself. 


252      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

How  vast  the  change  from  the  time  when  Chris- 
tian England  forbade  Carey  to  land  in  British  India 
to  that  in  which  Li  Hung  Chang  converses  freely 
with  a  Protestant  bishop,  and  asks  more  mission- 
aries to  be  sent  to  China  ;  and  from  the  pope's 
bull  against  Luther  to  the  edicts  of  Roman  Catho- 
lic presidents  in  Mexico  and  in  South  America  pro- 
claiming and  enforcing  liberty  of  religious  wor- 
ship, and  expressing  high  appreciation  of  our 
schools  !  "  The  Hermit  Nation  "  of  yesterday  is 
not  only  wide  open  to  the  Gospel  to-day,  but  thou- 
sands of  Koreans  have  already  been  converted,  and 
the  work  of  evangelization  is  going  on  among  them 
more  easily  and  with  vastly  higher  percentage  of 
conversions  every  year  than  in  any  city  in  the 
United  States, 

If  the  light  which  was  centered  in  focal  blaze  for 
a  whole  week  in  the  Mathewson  Street  Church, 
Providence,  during  the  recent  meeting  of  the  Gen- 
eral Missionary  Committee,  could  be  similarly  fo- 
cused in  every  one  of  our  churches  on  the  day  of 
the  missionary  collection,  our  treasury  would  over- 
flow, and  every  mission  we  have  in  all  the  earth 
would  have  its  resources  multiplied  and  its  largest 
possible  success  assured.  Probably  no  other  fifty 
men  on  earth  could  bring  together  such  recent  and 
full  missionary  information  as  the  members  of  that 
great  annual  committee.  They  include  all  the 
bishops,  the  officers  of  the  Missionary  Society,  four- 
teen delegates  chosen  by  the  General  Conference 
and  representing  all  the  Annual  Conferences,  and 


A  BUGLE  CALL. 


253 


seven  ministers  and  seven  laymen  selected  by  the 
Board  of  Managers,  which  meets  every  month  in 
the  year  and  gives  constant  attention  to  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  appropriations,  and  to  the  con- 
dition of  the  missionary  work  at  home  and  abroad. 
No  field  can  be  named  which  has  not  been  visited 
by  one  or  more  of  the  bishops,  and  often  by  sev- 
eral of  them,  within  one  or  two  years.  Six  bishops 
made  full  and  inspiring  reports  covering  the  work 
in  nearly  all  of  our  foreign  fields,  and  based  upon 
their  very  recent  official  visitations :  Warren,  from 
South  America;  FitzGerald,  from  Mexico;  Walden, 
from  all  our  missions  in  Europe  ;  Joyce,  from  Ja- 
pan, Korea  and  China  ;  Hartzell,  from  Africa;  and 
Foss,  from  India  and  Malaysia.  The  general  ver- 
dict, voiced  by  all  our  Church  papers,  was  that  no 
previous  meeting  of  the  General  Committee  has 
ever  enjoyed  such  a  wide,  full,  elaborate,  and  in- 
spiring view  of  our  whole  foreign  missionary  work. 

The  effect  of  these  representations  was  manifest 
in  the  appropriations  made.  The  percentage  for 
the  foreign  work  agreed  upon  at  the  opening  of  the 
session  was  larger  than  ever  before,  namely,  fifty- 
seven  per  cent  for  foreign  missions  and  forty-three 
per  cent  for  home  missions,  and  was  still  further 
increased  after  the  whole  list  of  missions,  foreign 
and  home,  had  been  most  carefully  and  patiently 
considered.  The  trumpet  calls  of  God  for  "  those 
who  need  us  most  "  sounded  so  loudly  in  all  ears 
that  even  the  special  pleaders  for  the  home  work 
consented  to  hold  its  appropriations  a  little  within 


254      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

the  percentage  at  first  fixed  ;  and  the  final  adjust- 
ment, with  general  and  cordial  consent,  fixed  the 
appropriations  so  that  they  aggregated  a  little  more 
than  fifty-eight  and  a  third  per  cent  for  the  foreign 
work  and  a  little  less  than  forty-one  and  two  thirds 
per  cent  for  the  home  work. 

I  would  that  some  magic  carpet  might  transport 
our  fourteen  thousand  pastors  to  India  for  a  few 
months'  careful  observation  there.  They  would 
see,  quickly  after  landing  in  Bombay,  the  "  Burning 
Ghats,"  in  which  the  Hindus  place  the  bodies  of 
their  dead  on  great  piles  of  dried  wood,  where  they 
are  reduced  to  ashes,  while  the  suffocating  smoke 
and  stench  wrap  you  round  as  you  drive  along  the 
principal  boulevard  of  the  city  ;  and  the  "  Towers  of 
Silence,"  in  which  the  Parsees  expose  their  dead  to 
the  vultures,  by  which  every  shred  of  flesh  is  torn 
from  the  bones  in  a  few  moments.  They  would  see, 
far  north,  at  Naini  Tal,  the  most  beautiful  of  lakes, 
with  our  Hindu  church  at  one  end  and  our  English- 
speaking  church  at  the  other,  our  girls'  school  far 
up  the  mountain  on  one  side,  and  our  boys'  school 
on  the  other,  and,  from  a  near  height,  the  majes- 
tic Himalayas,  clad  in  perpetual  ermine,  with  the 
Ganges  bursting  forth  from  the  glacier  on  the  side 
of  the  loftiest  peak.  They  would  see,  far  down  upon 
the  densely  populous  plain,  the  especially  "  sacred  " 
city  of  Benares,  where  tens  of  thousands  of  religious 
devotees  bathe  every  day  in  the  Ganges,  and  drink 
for  internal  ablutions  large  draughts  of  its  exces- 
sively filthy  waters.    They  would  see  our  six  Con- 


A  BUGLE  CALL. 


255 


ferences  and  the  Biennial  Central  Conference 
(which  is  a  miniature  delegated  General  Confer- 
ence), and  would  be  delighted  with  the  personal 
acquaintance  of  a  large  number  of  our  three 
thousand  native  preachers  and  teachers,  who 
would  beg  that  their  numbers  as  "  holders  up " 
might  be  increased,  so  as  to  make  possible  the  bap- 
tism and  proper  care  of  fifty  thousand  heathen 
every  year  who  are  ready  to  abjure  their  idols  and 
come  to  Jesus.  They  would  see  the  Taj  Mahal,  by 
far  the  most  beautiful  tomb  in  the  world,  and  the 
splendid  deserted  palaces  of  Shah  Jahan,  and 
would  be  still  more  moved  by  the  sight  of  Christian 
orphanages,  schools,  and  little  mud  churches,  nurs- 
eries for  royal  infants,  destined  to  bring  to  India 
glories  such  as  Shah  Jahan  and  all  the  grand  mo- 
guls who  "built  like  Titans  and  finished  like  jewel- 
ers," never  dreamed  of.  They  would  find  among 
our  brothers  and  sisters  in  these  mission  fields 
faithful  workers,  worthy  to  be  written  into  a  new 
roll  call  of  the  heroes  of  the  faith  in  a  modern 
Eleventh  of  Hebrews.  They  would  find,  in  Bareilly 
and  Lucknow,  in  Cawnpore  and  Bombay,  in  Alla- 
habad and  Moradabad,  in  Calcutta  and  Madras,  in 
Rangoon  and  Singapore,  and  in  many  other  places, 
work  so  successful  that  it  has  long  since  strung 
and  tuned  the  harps  and  voices  of  the  angelic  host, 
and  so  bursting  with  promise  that  our  measureless 
opportunities  are  our  gravest  embarrassment.  They 
would  return — the  whole  fourteen  thousand  of 
them — flaming  heralds  and  impassioned  advocates 

17 


256      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


of  missionary  work  in  the  heathen  world,  among 
more  than  half  the  population  of  the  globe,  most  of 
whom,  at  the  very  close  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
have  never  once  heard  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ. 

While  in  India  I  read,  with  no  little  emotion,  a 
collection  of  short  tracts  written  by  tender-hearted 
and  anxious  missionaries  of  several  branches  of  the 
Church,  entitled  The  Awakening  of  India,  express- 
ing their  earnest  desire  for  influences  of  the  divine 
Spirit  to  secure  greater  revival  power  throughout 
that  vast  empire.  Would  that  there  might  be  a 
far  more  needed  awakening  of  America  to  some 
adequate  sense  of  the  splendor  of  her  present  op- 
portunities for  swift  advances  in  the  conquest  of  the 
heathen  world  !  O  Zion  !  "  Arise  and  shine,  for 
thy  light  is  come,  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord  is  ris- 
en upon  thee." 


CHAPTER  XXX. 
STATISTICS. 


258 


FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


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260      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 

2.  Aggregate  Statistics*  for  all  Missionary  Societies  Working  in 
India  and  Malaysia. 


Stations  and  outstations   4,421 

Missionaries  : 

Ordained   893 

Lay   82 

Wives   497 

Other  women   244 

Total   1,716 

Native  workers : 

Ordained   915 

Teachers   6,794 

Other  helpers   91O36 

Total   16,745 

Total  missionaries  and  native  workers   18,461 

Preaching  places   2,544 

Sabbath  school  scholars   119,053 

Churches   i)9Si 

Communicants   255,050 

Schools  for  higher  education   86 

Pupils   8,431 

Common  schools   6,744 

Pupils   276,097 

Total  number  of  schools   6,830 

Total  number  of  pupils   284,528 

Native  contributions  for  all  purposes  $483,392 


*  Compiled  from  the  statistical  tMes  in  the  jEncyc/aper/ia  ()/ Missions  (Funk 
&  Wagnalls,  New  York)  and  exhibiting  the  work  of  forty-seven  missionary 
societies.  These  figures  fall  short  of  present  facts,  having  been  compiled  in  i8go. 
The /4/>«a«a<:  published  in  i8()q  by  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for 
Foreign  Missions  states  that  "  no  compilation  of  the  missionary  statistics  for 
India  has  been  made  since  the  tables  of  the  December  Conference  were  published 
in  1892.  The  numbers  then  given  have  been  largely  increased  within  recent 
years." 


INDEX. 


261 


INDEX. 


Agra,  38,  46. 
Allahabad,  loi,  223. 
Azores,  7. 

Bangalore,  52. 
Banyan  tree,  190. 
Baptisms,  40,  68,  91,  100,  227. 
Baptists,  185. 
Bareilly,  32. 
Beds,  23. 
Beggars,  102. 
Benares,  90,  237,  254. 
Bengal-Burma  Conference,  86. 
B/taJans,  126. 
Bhalej,  51,  226. 
Blackstone,  Wm.  E.,  167. 
Boils,  178. 
Boist,  Maria,  68. 
Bombay  Conference,  52. 
Bond,  Mrs.  T.  T.,  90. 
Borneo,  198,  200. 
Bowringpet,  55. 
Brahmanism,  183. 
British  rule  in  India,  218,  245. 
Budden,  Annie,  30. 
Buddhism,  183. 
Burma,  177,  182. 
Burning  Ghats,  189,  254. 
Burt,  Rev.  William,  D.D.,  14. 
Butler,  Rev.  Wm.,  D.D.,  66,  in, 
114. 

Butler,  Mrs.  Wm.,  66. 

Camp  meeting,  Hathras,  35. 

Caste,  41,  60,  140,  181. 

Central  India  Conference,  98,  107, 

118. 
Chinese,  201. 
Clwta  Hazh'i^  40,  150. 
Christian  evidences,  220. 
Christmas,  87. 

City  0/    Everett^    famine  relief 

steamer,  23,  240. 
Clancy,  Rev.  Rockwell,  159, 164, 241. 
Cobras,  193. 

Conversions,  numbers  of,  133,  227. 

"  reality  of,  36,  115,  229. 
Crows,  24,  178,  193. 


Curiosities,  i8g. 

Curry,  Rev.  Daniel,  D.D.,  245. 

Curry,  174. 

Dandis,  28. 

Deewan  Khass,  44,  50. 

Delhi,  38,  43. 

Devotees,  102,  224. 

District  Conferences,  30,  38,  112. 

Durian,  192. 

Dyaks,  200. 

Earthquakes,  33,  88,  199,  210. 
Eclipse  of  sun,  99. 
Elephants,  195,  203. 
English,  Fannie  M.,  105. 
Epworth  League,  122. 

Famine  waifs,  23,  68,  105,  241. 
Fatehganj,  32. 
Flying  foxes,  91,  194. 
Franklin,  Rev.  Isaac,  159 
Fruits,  135,  171,  176,  192,  203. 

Ganges,  238. 

General     Missionary  Committee, 

233,  252. 
Gibraltar,  13. 

Goucher,  Rev.  John  F.,  D.D.,  6, 

83,  129,  140,  169,  233,  242. 
Goucher  schools,  129,  242. 
Grants-in-aid,  161. 

Hasan  Raza  Khan,  135,  159,  162, 
243- 

Hathras  camp  meeting,  35. 

Havelock,  Sir  Henry,  91. 

Hawthorne,  Julian,  94,  218,  241. 

Himalayas,  28. 

Hooghly  River,  87. 

Humphrey,  Rev.  J.  L.,  M.D.,  104. 

Indian  Ocean,  16. 
Indian  Witness,  86. 
Inland  Sea  of  Japan,  209. 

Jackals,  36. 

Janvier,  Rev.  Joel,  104. 


262      FROM  THE  HIMALAYAS  TO  THE  EQUATOR. 


Japan,  230. 

Jinrikisha,  175. 

Jordan,  Joseph,  144. 

Joyce,  Bishop  I.  W.,  98,  100,  122. 

Judson,  Rev.  Adoniram,  184. 

Kali,  127. 

Kinnaird,  Lord,  19,  234,  244. 
Kipling;,  Rudyard,  246. 
Koh-i-noor,  45,  79. 
Kolar,  54. 

Laidlaw,  Robert,  86. 
Landslide,  31. 
Lazarus,  Dr.  E.  J.,  90. 
Leuring,  Rev.  H.  L.  E.,  199,  203. 
Lizards,  178. 

Madras,  71,  85. 

Malaysia,  ig8. 

Mansell,  Rev.  W.  A.,  123. 

Medical  work,  62. 

Mela,  35,  ici,  223. 

Missionaries,  houses  of,  92,  148. 

"  manner  of  life  of,  147. 

"  wives  of,  34. 

"  work  of,  94. 

Missionary  Episcopacy,  118. 
Moguls,  38,  41-45,  255. 
Monkeys,  24,  194. 

Nagasaki,  208. 
Nagoya,  210. 
Naini  Tal,  27,  254. 
Native  music,  127. 
Needs,  247. 

North  India  Conference,  103. 
Northwest  India  Conference,  96. 

Oldham,  Rev.  W.  F.,  D.D.,  200. 
Orphanages,  67,  71. 
Orphans,  95. 

Pacific  Ocean,  212. 

Parker,  Rev.  E.  W.,  D.D.,  66,  123, 

130,  136,  229. 
Parker,  Mrs.  E.  W.,  66. 
Peacock  Throne,  44. 
Penang,  175. 
Philippines,  201. 
Pigeon  orchid,  191. 
Plague,  5,  53,  172,  217. 
Poverty,  235,  236. 
Publishing  House,  79. 
Fuukahs,  150. 


Railways,  23. 

"  Raw  heathen,"  229. 

Red  Sea,  16. 

Robinson,  Rev.  J.  E.,  86. 

Rome,  13. 

Rowe,  Phoebe,  69. 

Rudisill,  Rev.  A.  W.,  D.D.,  71,  80. 

Saigon,  205. 

Self  Support,  116,  153. 

Serpents,  33,  193. 

Servants,  149. 

Shah  Jahan,  43,  48,  255. 

Shanghai,  207. 

Shellabear,  Rev.  W.  G.,  200. 

Singapore,  199,  202. 

Solomon,  Rev.  Abraham,  137. 

Soobooiiagam  Ammal,  73. 

Southern  Cross,  173. 

Statistics,  221,  244,  258,  260. 

Steele,  Mrs.  Daniel,  66. 

Stephens,  Grace,  71. 

Storrs,  Rev.  R.  S.,  D.D.,  236. 

Suez  Canal,  14. 

Taj  Mahal,  38,  46,  255. 
Taylor,  Bishop  William,  iii. 
Thoburn,  Bishop  J.  M.,  5,  17,  52, 

53,  109,  114,  222,  234,  241,  249. 
Thoburn,  Isabella,  91. 
Thomson,  Bishop  Edward,  239. 
Tokyo,  211. 
Tongas,  28. 
Torrid  Zone,  168. 
Towers  of  Silence,  189,  254. 
Traveler's  Tree,  191. 
Tupper,  Samuel,  140. 

Vencatachellum,  Mr.  P.,  76,  78. 
Viceroy  of  India,  169. 

Wallace,  Alfred   Russel,  192,  198. 

Warne,  Rev.  F.  W.,  123. 

Weather,  7,  53,  93,  147,   150,  170, 
174,  207,  212. 

West,  Rev.  B.  F.,  201. 

Woman,  condition  of,  58,  236. 
"       work  of,  57. 

Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  So- 
ciety, 32,  39,  65,  180. 

Yokohama,  210. 

Zahur  ul  Haqq,  137. 
Zenanas,  61,  74. 


Date  Due 


mm 

PRINTED 

IN  U.  S.  A. 

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